✨📕 The NEWThe NEW Collegiate Dictionary, 12th Edition Over 5,000 words added — Buy Now! Collegiate DictionaryBuy Now!

the heat

noun

: pressure to do something
The administration is putting the heat on legislators to approve the tax bill.
She's at her best when the heat is on with tight deadlines.
The company has turned up the heat on its employees to finish the job quickly.

Note: The expression if you can't stand/take the heat, get out of the kitchen means that you should not try to do a difficult job if you cannot deal with the pressure and problems that are part of the job.

Examples of the heat in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The direct parallels end there though, because Impulse has gone a lot further than Copper in exploiting the heat-transfer opportunities modern battery tech brings to cooking. New Atlas, 27 Nov. 2025 Studies warn that even a few hundred meters of piping can cause a ~10 °C drop in the heat’s temperature. Srishti Gupta, Interesting Engineering, 27 Nov. 2025 The New York Yankees need to make some big moves this offseason, and the heat is only getting hotter with each passing day. Zach Pressnell, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2025 In other words, the heat emanating off of the early Earth creates a chemical gradient within the disk, leading to a differing composition for the side of the Moon that’s closer to Earth versus the side farther from Earth. Big Think, 26 Nov. 2025 See All Example Sentences for the heat

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“The heat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/the%20heat. Accessed 29 Nov. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!