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

After traveling through our atmosphere and heating up, searing through the sky and then crashing through a roof and then a bedroom ceiling, the meteorite broke apart into pieces. — Chelsea Gohd, Space.com, 15 July 2026

The issue itself has heated up among Republican leaders in the state. — Ken Molestina, CBS News, 14 July 2026

Since then, though, the stock has lost a few percentage points, in line with the S & P 500's healthcare sector , as the Iran war heated up again and dragged down large swaths of the market outside energy and tech. — Natasha Abellard, CNBC, 14 July 2026

Cars and other vehicles can heat up fast, so don’t leave children or pets unattended inside. — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 13 July 2026

Rhymes for heat up

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