From Middle English melten, from a merger of Old English meltan (intransitive) and mieltan (transitive), both meaning “to melt, digest,” from Proto-West Germanic *meltan and *maltijan, from Proto-Germanic *meltaną and *maltijaną, both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld-.

• enPR: mĕlt, IPA: /mɛlt/

melt (melts, present participle melting; simple past and past participle melted)

1. (ergative) To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.

   I melted butter to make a cake.

   When the weather is warm, the snowman will disappear; he will melt.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To dissolve, disperse, vanish.

   His troubles melted away.

3. (transitive, figurative) 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.
   • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Thou would'st have […] melted down thy youth.

   • 1687, John Dryden, A Song for Cecilia's Day:

     For pity melts the mind to love.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XXI, page 35 ↗:

     The traveller hears me now and then,
     ⁠And sometimes harshly will he speak:
     ⁠‘This fellow would make weakness weak,
     And melt the waxen hearts of men.’

4. (intransitive) To be discouraged.
5. (intransitive, figurative) To be emotionally softened or touched.

   She melted when she saw the romantic message in the Valentine's Day card.

   My heart melted when I first heard the song.

6. (intransitive, colloquial) To be very hot and sweat profusely.

   I need shade! I'm melting!

• (change from solid to liquid) to found, to thaw

• smelt

• French: fondre (1), se dissoudre (2)
• German: schmelzen
• Italian: sciogliere, fondere
• Portuguese: derreter, fundir
• Russian: (snow, ice, butter, hope) та́ять
• Spanish: derretirse, fundirse

• French: faire fondre
• German: schmelzen lassen
• Italian: liquare
• Portuguese: derreter, liquefazer
• Russian: раста́пливать
• Spanish: derretir, licuar

melt

1. Molten material, the product of melting.
2. The transition of matter from a solid state to a liquid state.
3. The springtime snow runoff in mountain regions.
4. A melt sandwich.
5. (geology) Rock showing evidence of having been remelted after it originally solidified.

   Numerous samples of breccia and impact melts were recovered by drilling into the floor of the crater.

6. A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.

   Synonyms: tart

7. (UK, slang, derogatory) An idiot.
8. Variant spelling of milt, the semen of a male fish, used as food.

• German: Schmelze
• Russian: распла́в
• Spanish: material fundido

• Russian: плавле́ние

• German: Schmelzwasser
• Russian: та́яние

melt (uncountable)

1. (computing) Acronym of metrics, events, logs and traces