warm

Of a somewhat high temperature, often but not always connoting that the high temperature is pleasant rather than uncomfortable.

Adjective

  1. Of a somewhat high temperature, often but not always connoting that the high temperature is pleasant rather than uncomfortable.
    • The tea is still warm.
    • This is a very warm room.
    • Warm and still is the summer night. - 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Herons of Elmwood:
  2. Friendly and with affection.
    • We have a warm friendship.
  3. Having a color in the part of the visible electromagnetic spectrum between red and yellow-green.
  4. Close to a goal or correct answer.
    • Earlier you were way off, but now you're getting warmer.
    • That was a further clue; and here, indeed, young Mr. Dowse was getting "warm," as children say at blind-man's-buff, although, as a matter-of-fact, she had now been talking of George Miller at all. - 1876, William Black,...
  5. Fresh, of a scent; still able to be traced.
  6. Communicating a sense of comfort, ease, or pleasantness.
    • a warm piano sound
  7. Ardent, zealous.
    • a warm debate, with strong words exchanged
    • Mirth, and youth, and warm desire! - 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “Song on May Morning”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:
    • They say he's a warm man and does not care to be made mouths at. - 1712 September 21 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, September 11, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 481;...
  8. Well off as to property, or in good circumstances; prosperous.
    • You shall have a draught upon him, payable at sight: and let me tell you he is as warm a man as any within five miles round him. - 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I...
    • Mrs. and the Miss Cathcarts began to be considered as people of some consequence in the circle in which they moved, while he gradually obtained in the city the name of a warm man. - 1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina,...
    • I know the Stuyvesant family —puff— every one of them —puff— not a more respectable family in the province —puff— old standards —puff— warm householders —puff— none of your upstarts - 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym;...
  9. Requiring arduous effort.
    • The circular iron platform over there is used in the task of tyring the wheels, a warm job, too, by the way. - 1929, The Listener, numbers 41-50, page 552:

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *warmaz Proto-West Germanic *warm Old English wearm Middle English warm English warm From Middle English warm, werm, from Old English wearm, from Proto-West Germanic *warm, from Proto-Germanic *warmaz, from one of: * Proto-Indo-European *wór-mo-s, from *wer- (“to burn”), which is related to Hittite 𒉿𒊏𒀀𒉌 (warāni, “to burn”), Armenian վառել (vaṙel, “to burn, heat, warm”), Old Church Slavonic варити (variti, “to cook, boil”). * Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mo-s, from the root *gʷʰer- (“warm, hot”), in which case cognate with Ancient Greek θερμός (thermós) (making perhaps a distant doublet of thermos), Latin formus, Sanskrit घर्म (gharmá). In any case cognate within Germanic to West Frisian waarm, Saterland Frisian woorm, Dutch warm, German warm, Swedish varm, Icelandic varmur.

Forms

warmer warmest warme

Synonyms

warm tepid mild balmy

Antonyms

Arctic cold cool frozen

Hyponyms

lukewarm overwarm underwarm

Related

heated hot steamy temperature tepid

Derived

cold hands, warm heart lukewarm milk-warm muffin-warm piss-warm warm antibody warm as life warm as toast warm bank warm-blooded warm-bloodedness warm body warm boot warm carl warm dark matter warm-down warm front warm fuzzy warm hatch warm-hearted warmhearted warm hose warm-hot intergalactic medium warm hub

Noun

  1. The act of warming, or the state of being warmed; a heating.
    • Shall I give your coffee a warm in the microwave?
    • Sit ye down before the fire , my dear , and have a warm - 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the page number)”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *warmaz Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *warmijaną Proto-West Germanic *warmijan Old English wierman Proto-West Germanic *warmōn Old English wearmian Middle English warmen English warm From Middle English warmen, wermen, wyrmen, from Old English wierman (“to make warm”) and wearmian (“to become warm”), from Proto-West Germanic *warmijan and *warmōn. Cognate with Dutch warmen, German wärmen, Swedish värma.

Forms

warms warme

Verb

  1. To make or keep warm.
    • Then shall it [an ash tree] be for a man to burn; for he will take thereof and warm himself. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 44 44-Chapter-15/# 15::
    • enough to warm, but not enough to burn - 1825, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Morituri Salutamus:
  2. To become warm, to heat up.
    • My socks are warming by the fire.
    • The earth soon warms on a clear summer day.
  3. To favour increasingly. [with to]
    • Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected. - 1963, Margery Allingham,...
    • He is warming to the idea.
    • Her classmates are gradually warming to her.
  4. To cause (someone) to favour (something) increasingly.
    • It is with no small degree of irony that I confess that immersing myself in an interdisciplinary project has warmed me to the seductions of disciplinary perspectives. - 2006, Matt Wray, Not Quite White, page xi:
  5. To become ardent or animated.
    • The speaker warms as he proceeds.
  6. To make engaged or earnest; to interest; to engage; to excite ardor or zeal in; to enliven.
    • 1717 November 20, Alexander Pope, letter to the Bishop of Rochester there was a collection of all that had been written […] : I warmed my head with them.
    • Bright hopes, that erst the bosom warmed. - 1827, [John Keble], The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […]...
  7. To give emotional warmth to a person.
    • That is just the way God tells me this book is His Word. I read it, and it warms me and gives me light. - 1886, Joseph Augustus Seiss, Right Life: Or, Candid Talks On Vital Themes:
  8. To beat or spank.
    • Not bothering to turn around and not missing a mouthful, Myrtle comforted her with threats of "I'll warm your bottom"; "I'll turn you over to your dad"; "I'll lock you in the truck"; "I'll send for the bogey man" — all...
  9. To scold or abuse verbally.
  10. To prepopulate (a cache) so that its contents are ready for other users.

    Synonyms: warm up

  11. To send electronic mail from (a domain) to improve its reputation for mail sending.

    Synonyms: warm up

Forms

warms warming warmed warme

Derived

like death warmed over warm down warm over warm someone's heart warm the bench warm the cockles of someone's heart