melt
part of speech
verb (melt, melts, melted, melting)
meaning for a pupil
1) To melt is to change from a solid into a liquid because of heat: ice melts into water. tree →
2) To melt can mean to soften or disappear slowly: «The crowd melted away». tree →
3) To melt someone's heart is to make them feel loving and kind. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, melting is a change of state: a solid gets warm enough to become a liquid; the temperature where this happens is its melting point (ice melts at 0 °C). Melting can be reversed by cooling (freezing). In cooking, butter and chocolate melt. In stories, «her heart melted» means she became kind. Phrases: «melt away», «melt in your mouth», «melting pot».
examples
- The snowman melted in the sun. tree →
- Ice melts at zero degrees Celsius. tree →
- Melt the butter in a pan. tree →
- My ice cream is melting — eat it fast! tree →
- Chocolate melts in your hand. tree →
- The puppy's big eyes melted her heart. tree →
- Melting ice at the poles makes sea levels rise. tree →
- Wax melts when the candle burns. tree →
- Crediting them with a nobler feeling Wendy melted. tree →
note
Melting is not the same as dissolving: sugar dissolves in water (mixes in), ice melts (turns liquid from heat). The opposite of melt is freeze or set. «Molten» is used for very hot melted rock or metal: molten lava.
In the corpora
- Atoms are not destroyed when ice melts or a smell spreads; the same atoms just move about and change partners.
- Ice melts at 0 °C; chocolate melts at about 34 °C, just below the temperature inside your mouth.
- Real volcanoes erupt melted rock pushed by hot gases deep underground, not by vinegar and soda.
- Popping candy works differently: gas is trapped inside hard sugar and pops out as the sugar melts.
- Ice cream is stirred while freezing so the ice crystals stay tiny; melted and refrozen ice cream grows big crystals and feels crunchy.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «melt» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.