Meaning of heat in English

heat

noun

/hiːt/ us

/hiːt/

heat noun (TEMPERATURE)

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B1 [ S or U ]

the quality of being hot or warm, or the temperature of something:

the heat of the sun/fire

How do you manage to work in this heat without air conditioning?

She always wore a coat, even in the heat of summer.

on a high heat Cook the meat on a high heat (= at a high temperature).

on a low heat Let it simmer on a low heat (= at a low temperature) for ten minutes.

More examplesFewer examples

Turn the oven to a low heat.
Firefighters were driven back by the heat of the flames.
A greenhouse stays warm because the glass traps the heat of the sun.
Let the liquid come to the boil and then reduce the heat.
The flowers were drooping in the heat.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Hot & heat

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heat noun (IN BUILDING)

A2 [ U ] US

(also mainly UK heating)

the system that keeps a building warm:

Is the heat on?

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Hot & heat

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heat noun (RACE)

[ C ]

a race or competition in which it is decided who will compete in the final event:

Phelps swam fastest in the heats.

He lost the first heat by about a car length.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Parts & stages of competitions

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heat noun (ANIMAL)

on heat UK (US in heat)

An animal that is in heat is in a state of sexual excitement and ready to breed:

It is essential to know when the goat is on heat.

heat noun (IN BASEBALL)

[ U ] US informal

in baseball, a pitcher's ability to throw the the ball very fast, or an act of doing this:

bring the heat Even at the age of 40, he could still bring the heat.

He struck out Bell with high heat.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Baseball & rounders

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Idioms

in the heat of the moment
if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen
put the heat on someone
take the heat off someone
the heat is on
the heat of battle

heat

verb [ I or T ]

/hiːt/ us

/hiːt/

to make something hot or warm, or to become hot or warm:

A large house like this must be expensive to heat.

heat something up Shall I heat up some soup for lunch?

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to become hot or make someone or something hot

heatCan you heat up some soup for me?
warmCome warm yourself by the fire.
warm upI'll warm up some dinner for you.
overheatI think the engine's overheated.
bakeHe forgot to water his garden, and now the flowers are just baking in the sun.

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More examplesFewer examples

She's too miserly to heat the house properly.
The fire heats the room up within minutes.
The room was heated by a wood-burning stove.
If you heat water to 100°C it turns to steam.
Some kinds of plastic become pliable if they're heated.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Hot & heat

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(Definition of heat from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

heat | American Dictionary

heat

noun

heat noun (TEMPERATURE)

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[ U ] us

/hit/

warmth, esp. a lot of warmth:

the heat of the sun

[ U ] physics us

/hit/

Heat is also a form of energy that a substance has because of the movement of its molecules or atoms.

[ U ] us

/hit/

The heat can also mean hot weather:

I thought I’d like living in Florida, but the heat was too much for me.

[ U ] us

/hit/

The heat is also the system in a building or a stove that controls the temperature:

I’m freezing – can you turn up the heat?

Lower the heat when the water starts to boil.

heat noun (POWER)

[ U ] physics us/hit/

a type of energy that moves from one object or substance to another because of their difference in temperature

heat noun (EMOTION)

[ U ] us

/hit/

a state of strong emotion, esp. excitement or anger:

The heat of his own argument swept him away.

John apologized for the remarks he had made in the heat of the moment (= while he was angry or excited).

heat noun (RESPONSIBILITY)

[ U ] us

/hit/

responsibility or blame:

We took a lot of heat for showing that on TV.

heat noun (COMPETITION)

[ C ] us

/hit/

a competition, esp. a race, in which it is decided who will compete in the final event

heat noun (BIOLOGY)

in heat biology

If an animal, esp. a female, is in heat, it is ready to breed.

heat

verb [ T ]

/hit/

heat verb [T] (TEMPERATURE)

to make a place or thing warm:

It costs a lot to heat this house.

Heat the sauce in the microwave.

Phrasal verb

heat up something

(Definition of heat from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

heat | Business English

heat

noun

informal

/hiːt/ us

feel/take/face the heat

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to be in a difficult situation in which you have to deal with a lot of problems:

Domestic retailers are feeling the heat from foreign competitors.

turn up the heat (on sb/sth) (also put the heat on sb)

to try to force someone or something to do something in order to get the result you want:

OPEC could turn up the heat by increasing oil prices still further.

(Definition of heat from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of heat

heat

Above the lower critical radiation, the plasma generates additional heat flux, and the surface temperature is increased.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These could range from thickness and shape to qualities such as heat and weight resistance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Any ova with broken or cracked zonae were discarded before and after heat treatment.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The heat generated in the doped core has to pass the heat impedance of the coating before it reaches the convecting water flow.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The model is based on a realistic heat transfer law and also accounts for a non-symmetric arrangement of heat sources and sinks.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Keeping this in mind we test to determine if the heat constraint dominates the demagnetization constraint.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Warhaft measured the fluctuation statistics of the thermal field downstream of one or more parallel heated wires behind a grid in a wind tunnel.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Here, heating was achieved by an electric current, and cooling by liquid flow.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Meanwhile, as an epistemological consequence of microscopy, the argument from invisibility had led to heated debates over microscopic reality.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Explosion of atomic clusters heated by high-intensity femtosecond laser pulses.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The development of almost all embryos cultured in the heat-treated or trypsin-treated medium was arrested at the 2-cell stage.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Nineteen articles were tumour cells that are sensitised to heat.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In addition, it continuously monitors the heat consumption and sends each minute a report to the redistribution agent of the cluster it belongs to.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Under the blistering heat, the long marches could be exhausting and water was a scarce commodity.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Apparently, heated words had been exchanged between a number of villagers and the district o-cer.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of heat

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of heat?