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 Blue Jays have paths to an improved lineup — Santander could heat up, Barger and Varsho may add depth power, and Bichette’s and Guerrero’s real numbers should catch up to the expected. —Mitch Bannon, New York Times, 3 May 2025

The topic of reviving domestic film and television production has been heating up for some time. —Katie Campione, Deadline, 2 May 2025

Sometimes good hitters can backslide, but both of them could heat up as the season progresses. —Daniel R. Epstein, Forbes.com, 1 May 2025

Competition in peer-to-peer payments is heating up, after Venmo reported a 20% jump in revenue. —Mackenzie Sigalos, CNBC, 1 May 2025

Rhymes for heat up

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