to check the temperature
2
1.4
- phrasal verb
:
verificar la temperatura
- It's important to check the temperature of the water before giving your baby a bath.
- check the temperature with a thermometer
- check the internal temperature
Examples
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Okay, check the temperature of the pool.
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If you try to check that the temperature is rising, what are you going to check?
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- Go check the temperature.
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One minute before that, he had opened the door of his room to check the morning temperature.
Fiction book (2002) -
Earlier she'd opened the window to check the temperature.
Fiction book (1996) -
Aren't you supposed to check the temperature?
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Gus, go ahead, check the temperature.
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He checked the temperature again, but it never seemed right.
Fiction book (1993) -
Mom checks the temperature!
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Check the temperature in the refrigerator and freezer. If the thermometer reads 40°F or below, the food is safe.
Blog text (22)
Synonyms
To measure a person's body temperature to see if they have a fever
How Accurate
Surface Forms
Morphology
check + the + temperature
The meaning 'to measure or determine the degree of heat or cold' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'check' (inspect/verify) with 'temperature' (level of heat), so a learner who knows both words can infer the MWE. This is a straightforward verb + noun construction common in everyday language and across many languages, making it immediately comprehensible to B1 learners.
Etymology
The phrase check the temperature comes from the simple habit of looking at a thermometer or touching something to see if it is hot or cold. Here check means to look or test and temperature means the level of heat, so the phrase came to mean 'to measure how hot or cold'.