heat up

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

The race for the championship is now heating up, and here's how to catch this weekend's Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix live using a streaming subscription, free trial, or VPN. — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 8 Oct. 2026

With Election Day just four weeks away, the rhetoric on the campaign trail in New York is heating up. — Marcia Kramer, CBS News, 6 Oct. 2026

And people in other parts of the country should make arrangements to get their shots within the next two or three weeks, because booking appointments will get more challenging as flu activity starts to heat up elsewhere. — Amanda Erickson, STAT, 6 Oct. 2026

Yankees’ Thaddeus Breaux is heating up just in time for Western League. — Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 6 Oct. 2026

Rhymes for heat up

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