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

Once pitchers and catchers began reporting to their spring sites, Bregman’s market finally began to heat up. —Katie Woo, The Athletic, 21 Feb. 2025

The Dark Side of a Lobster Fight: As Canada wrangles an epic, decades-long saga of who can fish for lobster, and when, emerging threats are heating up the conflict in Nova Scotia. —Victoria Kim, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025

The 4 Nations Face-Off tournament is heating up, and the action shifts to the United States as Team USA takes on Sweden at TD Garden in Boston on Monday night. —Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 18 Feb. 2025

Ultimately, hot planets cool off, and stellar irradiation heats up atmospheres. —Dakotah Tyler, Scientific American, 18 Feb. 2025

Rhymes for heat up

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