heat up

phrasal verb

heated up; heating up; heats up

1

: to become warm or hot

The morning started out cold but it heated up quickly.

2

: to become more active, intense, or angry

Their conversation started to heat up.

Competition between the two companies is heating up.

3

heat (something) up or heat up (something) : to cause (something) to become warm or hot

Could you heat up the vegetables, please?

Examples of heat up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The absence of updates on the job market and inflation has left the Federal Reserve in the dark at the same time that employment was weakening and inflation heating up. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 6 Nov. 2025

Deal talk in exhibition is heating up. —Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 5 Nov. 2025

The race has been heating up between Democratic nominee Mamdani who is the favorite to win; former state Governor Andrew Cuomo, running as an independent; and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. —Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025

What these opening salvos told us is that this race isn’t going to take time to heat up. —Sam Vecenie, New York Times, 3 Nov. 2025

Rhymes for heat up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup