as in prelude
a performance, activity, or event that precedes and sets the stage for the main event
the couple's initial exchange of insults proved to be only a warm-up for their booze-fueled fight later that night
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of warm (up)
Cutter Martin, CBS News, 2 Jan. 2026
More recently, the daredevil actor has focused on warm-up stretches, muscling his eight-film franchise to its explosive finale.
—Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2026
This allows users to tailor sessions for warm-ups, post-training recovery or even relaxation.
—Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 31 Dec. 2025
The event will begin with a warm-up led by local fitness trainer Cassy DaSilva, then La Jollan Chas.
—La Jolla Light, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for warm (up)
Noun
The real warm-up arrives Wednesday into Thursday.
—Cutter Martin, CBS News, 2 Jan. 2026
More recently, the daredevil actor has focused on warm-up stretches, muscling his eight-film franchise to its explosive finale.
—Glenn Whipp, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2026
This allows users to tailor sessions for warm-ups, post-training recovery or even relaxation.
—Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 31 Dec. 2025
The event will begin with a warm-up led by local fitness trainer Cassy DaSilva, then La Jollan Chas.
—La Jolla Light, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for warm (up)
Recent Examples of Synonyms for warm (up)
Verb
-
The vast majority of these deaths are caused by illicit fentanyl which experts report is typically synthesized in Mexico from precursor chemicals provided by Chinese operatives and brought into the United States via vehicles passing through official ports of entry.—
Charles LeBaron,
Time,
13 Jan. 2026
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From 2018 to July 2024, Thola-Duran directed crime groups from Central and South America to travel to various parts of the United States to commit thefts, using cars provided by DPR, the indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court states.—
City News Service,
Daily News,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
And so, as a prelude to solving the Navier-Stokes problem, mathematicians have searched for blowups (also called singularities) in an assortment of simplified fluid equations, such as those that operate in only one dimension.—
Quanta Magazine,
Quanta Magazine,
9 Jan. 2026
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Previous rounds of popular unrest have also seen the government shut down communications, usually as a prelude to an all-out crackdown.—
Nabih Bulos,
Los Angeles Times,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The mission was to show the flag, explore commercial opportunities – including routes to supply gold-mining operations – and display a little firepower.—
Nathan Hodge,
CNN Money,
10 Jan. 2026
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The launches follow Lumus supplying the waveguide used in Meta Ray-Ban Display AR glasses in 2025, a deal that demonstrated both optical performance and mass manufacturability of geometric waveguides.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Is it reduced to yet another fill-in-the-blank preliminary to a national title game in some super-duper-they-look-alike stadium?—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
2 Jan. 2026
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Two weeks after Miss Jamaica, Dr. Gabrielle Henry, suffered a shocking fall during the Miss Universe preliminaries in Bangkok, the organization is offering an update on her condition.—
Shania Russell,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Nor did their eyes shed tears over the burning library that raiders furnished with the ashes of seven thousand books, which the novelist Mamdouh Azzam had collected over fifty years inside his house in Suwayda.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
15 Jan. 2026
-
The ebb and flow that investors furnish by hatching rentals when demand for them is strong, then switching toward sales when buyers return, helps balance in the marketplace.—
Shawn Tully,
Fortune,
13 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Few authors are better equipped to address these questions than the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard, who made a name for himself by alchemizing his private life into approximately 3,500 pages of literary voyeurism and stamping it with the name of Hitler’s manifesto.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
14 Jan. 2026
-
The property is equipped with a heating system.—
Bay Area Home Report,
Mercury News,
14 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Beck features the size (6-4, 220), arm talent and intangibles that NFL teams seek in a starting QB, but the inconsistency followed him to Coral Gables.—
Eddie Brown,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
8 Jan. 2026
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While each of these submarines is designed to carry up to 16 nuclear missiles, France only possesses 48 ballistic missiles—enough to arm three submarines, as the remaining vessel is always undergoing routine maintenance, the Nuclear Information Project said.—
Ryan Chan,
MSNBC Newsweek,
30 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Last session, lawmakers nearly passed a $3 million bill to help school districts educate students who need additional services, like a full-time nurse or an ASL interpreter, that can cost more than $50,000.—
Becca Savransky,
Idaho Statesman,
8 Jan. 2026
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SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe.—
Stephanie Pappas,
Scientific American,
7 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Warm (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/warm%20%28up%29. Accessed 16 Jan. 2026.
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