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 reason temperatures are heating up across much of the country is a large dome of high pressure building across the central and southern United States. —Troy Bridges, CBS News, 23 Dec. 2025

Draymond Green took an early seat for the second straight game, and for the second straight game, the Warriors heated up in his absence to cruise to a 120-97 win over the Orlando Magic on Monday at Chase Center. —Evan Webeck, Mercury News, 23 Dec. 2025

The show has been heating up TV screens over the last several weeks, focusing on the steamy, secret romance between rising star professional hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie). —David Oliver, USA Today, 23 Dec. 2025

Researchers have also experimented with storing energy by compressing air, heating up blocks or sand, using hydrogen or methanol, pressurizing water deep underground, and even dangling heavy objects in the air and dropping them. —IEEE Spectrum, 21 Dec. 2025

Rhymes for heat up

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