heat up

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

As the spacecraft strikes the air, the gas in front of it compresses rapidly and heats up. — Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 9 Sep. 2026

Climate change has been heating up Southern California for some time, heightening fire danger and worsening droughts. — Los Angeles Times, 9 Sep. 2026

The debate is only expected to heat up heading into the midterm elections. — Michelle Fox, CNBC, 8 Sep. 2026

Naturally, during the past few weeks, the discussion about how to kill Venezuela’s inflation, the world’s highest, and what to do with the bolivar, the world’s worst-performing currency, has heated up. — Steve H. Hanke, Fortune, 8 Sep. 2026

Rhymes for heat up

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