to warm up
40
1.6
- phrasal verb
- /wɔrm ʌp/
- After a cold day outdoors, she decided to warm up by the fireplace.
- weather warms up
- warm up a bit
- temperatures warm up
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Watch on YouTubeThe rocks are warming up and the water is cooling down.
- The rocks are warming up and the water is cooling down.
- OK, Liquor warms you up versus beer is cooling.
- The car will simply warm up your butt for you.
- So I just want a little bit of this to just warm up the skin, like bronzify myself.
- It's easier to warm up than it is the cold cool down.
- Dip my finger in, warm it up a bit.
Examples
-
How long does it take for the car to warm up?
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Oughta warm you up a little bit.
-
All right, let me warm that up for you.
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Want some wine to warm you up?
-
This will warm you up.
-
You pour it into a pot and you warm it up really gently.
-
My feet were starting to warm up and getting prickly.
Fiction book (1997) -
Sweetheart, why don't you go sit in the car and warm up, okay?
-
Whenever it's time to leave, he's already in the car, warming it up.
Fiction book (1997) -
Here, take a swig of this, it'll warm you up.
Synonyms
459
1.0
To make or become less cold
225
1.0
To make something hot or warmer
75
1.0
To make something hot or warm
21
2.1
To heat an oven or pan to the right temperature before you cook
Antonyms
How Warm
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 verb warm up comes from the simple picture of adding heat, like holding your hands near a fire until they feel warm. That's why it means 'to become warm or to make something warmer'.