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to warm up

to warm up

85 1.6
Become or make something less cold
  • phrasal verb
  • /wɔrm ʌp/
translation icon : calentar
  • After a cold day outdoors, she decided to warm up by the fireplace.
  • weather warms up
  • warm up a bit
  • temperatures warm up

The rocks are warming up and the water is cooling down.

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Examples

Synonyms

to warm
vsto warm up
488 1.0

To make or become less cold

is the two-word phrasal verb form with identical meaning
to heat
vsto warm up
298 1.0

To make something hot or warmer

raises temperature but usually to a lower, milder level
to heat up
vsto warm up
84 1.0

To make something hot or warm

does the same but to a lower, less hot temperature
to preheat
vsto warm up
35 2.1

To heat an oven or pan to the right temperature before you cook

is used more generally to make items slightly hotter not only before use

Antonyms

28 1.1

Become less hot or make something less hot

How Warm

to boil
269 1.0
to heat up
84 1.0
to warm up
85 1.6

Surface Forms

warm up infinitive
warmed up past
warmed up past participle
warming up present participle
warms up third person singular

Morphology

warm + up

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'.