to warm up
- phrasal verb
- /wɔrm ʌp/
- We need to let the engine warm up before driving in cold weather.
- warm up the engine
- warm up the car
- warm up the truck
OK S post Hi everyone, My girlfriend insists on idling her car for more than the legal time limit to warm it up in the morning.
- OK S post Hi everyone, My girlfriend insists on idling her car for more than the legal time limit to warm it up in the morning.
Examples
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Then, run the engine at a low speed without a load to warm up the hydraulic oil and other machine components.
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Need to wait for the generators to warm back up.
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In the dead of winter, they rose at three in the morning to warm up the car.
Fiction book (1999) -
It's going to take a while for the car to warm up.
Fiction book (1994) -
Captain, can we warm the engines up?
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I'll warm up the car.
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Warm up the motor, I'll be right back.
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I'll get the tractor warmed up.
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Mr. Emmett, warm up the diesels and line up a battery charge.
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Ten minutes later, as the engine slowly warmed up in the frigid temperatures, the first ice began to melt.
Fiction book (1999)
Synonyms
To make something hot or warm
To heat an oven or pan to the right temperature before you cook
Heat something before you use it
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The friendship sense is a metaphorical extension of the literal meanings 'warm' (to become warmer) and 'up' (increase): emotional 'warmth' maps to friendliness and 'warm up' therefore means 'become more friendly'. Because this requires recognizing a metaphorical shift (and phrasal-verb variability across contexts), a B1 learner who only knows the literal senses may not reliably infer the social meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Warm up — The phrasal verb warm up for machines comes from the idea of running an engine a short time so its parts get warm and work better. That's why it means 'to run a machine until it is ready to work'.