[syn: liquescent, melting]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Melting \Melt"ing\ a.
Causing to melt; becoming melted; -- used literally or
figuratively; as, a melting heat; a melting appeal; a melting
mood. -- Melt"ing*ly, adv.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Melt \Melt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Melted (obs.) p. p. Molten;
p. pr. & vb. n. Melting.] [AS. meltan; akin to Gr.
me`ldein, E. malt, and prob. to E. smelt, v. [root]108. Cf.
Smelt, v., Malt, Milt the spleen.]
1. To reduce from a solid to a liquid state, as by heat; to
liquefy; as, to melt wax, tallow, or lead; to melt ice or
snow.
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2. Hence: To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to
relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences;
sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of;
to weaken.
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Thou would'st have . . . melted down thy youth.
--Shak.
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For pity melts the mind to love. --Dryden.
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Syn: To liquefy; fuse; thaw; mollify; soften.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Melting \Melt"ing\, n.
Liquefaction; the act of causing (something) to melt, or the
process of becoming melted.
[1913 Webster]
Melting point (Chem.), the degree of temperature at which a
solid substance melts or fuses; as, the melting point of
ice is 0[deg] Centigrade or 32[deg] Fahr., that of urea is
132[deg] Centigrade. Pressure affects the melting point
somewhat, and if not specified the melting point is
usually taken to be at atmospheric pressure.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
melting
adj 1: becoming liquid [syn: liquescent, melting]
n 1: the process whereby heat changes something from a solid to
a liquid; "the power failure caused a refrigerator melt
that was a disaster"; "the thawing of a frozen turkey takes
several hours" [syn: thaw, melt, thawing, melting]