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Heat   /hit/   Listen
noun
Heat  n.  
1.
A force in nature which is recognized in various effects, but especially in the phenomena of fusion and evaporation, and which, as manifested in fire, the sun's rays, mechanical action, chemical combination, etc., becomes directly known to us through the sense of feeling. In its nature heat is a mode of motion, being in general a form of molecular disturbance or vibration. It was formerly supposed to be a subtile, imponderable fluid, to which was given the name caloric. Note: As affecting the human body, heat produces different sensations, which are called by different names, as heat or sensible heat, warmth, cold, etc., according to its degree or amount relatively to the normal temperature of the body.
2.
The sensation caused by the force or influence of heat when excessive, or above that which is normal to the human body; the bodily feeling experienced on exposure to fire, the sun's rays, etc.; the reverse of cold.
3.
High temperature, as distinguished from low temperature, or cold; as, the heat of summer and the cold of winter; heat of the skin or body in fever, etc. "Else how had the world... Avoided pinching cold and scorching heat!"
4.
Indication of high temperature; appearance, condition, or color of a body, as indicating its temperature; redness; high color; flush; degree of temperature to which something is heated, as indicated by appearance, condition, or otherwise. "It has raised... heats in their faces." "The heats smiths take of their iron are a blood-red heat, a white-flame heat, and a sparkling or welding heat."
5.
A single complete operation of heating, as at a forge or in a furnace; as, to make a horseshoe in a certain number of heats.
6.
A violent action unintermitted; a single effort; a single course in a race that consists of two or more courses; as, he won two heats out of three. "Many causes... for refreshment betwixt the heats." "(He) struck off at one heat the matchless tale of "Tam o' Shanter.""
7.
Utmost violence; rage; vehemence; as, the heat of battle or party. "The heat of their division."
8.
Agitation of mind; inflammation or excitement; exasperation. "The heat and hurry of his rage."
9.
Animation, as in discourse; ardor; fervency; as, in the heat of argument. "With all the strength and heat of eloquence."
10.
(Zool.) Sexual excitement in animals; readiness for sexual activity; estrus or rut.
11.
Fermentation.
12.
Strong psychological pressure, as in a police investigation; as, when they turned up the heat, he took it on the lam. (slang)
Animal heat, Blood heat, Capacity for heat, etc. See under Animal, Blood, etc.
Atomic heat (Chem.), the product obtained by multiplying the atomic weight of any element by its specific heat. The atomic heat of all solid elements is nearly a constant, the mean value being 6.4.
Dynamical theory of heat, that theory of heat which assumes it to be, not a peculiar kind of matter, but a peculiar motion of the ultimate particles of matter.
Heat engine, any apparatus by which a heated substance, as a heated fluid, is made to perform work by giving motion to mechanism, as a hot-air engine, or a steam engine.
Heat producers. (Physiol.) See under Food.
Heat rays, a term formerly applied to the rays near the red end of the spectrum, whether within or beyond the visible spectrum.
Heat weight (Mech.), the product of any quantity of heat by the mechanical equivalent of heat divided by the absolute temperature; called also thermodynamic function, and entropy.
Mechanical equivalent of heat. See under Equivalent.
Specific heat of a substance (at any temperature), the number of units of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of the substance at that temperature one degree.
Unit of heat, the quantity of heat required to raise, by one degree, the temperature of a unit mass of water, initially at a certain standard temperature. The temperature usually employed is that of 0° Centigrade, or 32° Fahrenheit.



verb
Heat  v. t.  (past & past part. heated; pres. part. heating)  
1.
To make hot; to communicate heat to, or cause to grow warm; as, to heat an oven or furnace, an iron, or the like. "Heat me these irons hot."
2.
To excite or make hot by action or emotion; to make feverish. "Pray, walk softly; do not heat your blood."
3.
To excite ardor in; to rouse to action; to excite to excess; to inflame, as the passions. "A noble emulation heats your breast."



Heat  v. i.  
1.
To grow warm or hot by the action of fire or friction, etc., or the communication of heat; as, the iron or the water heats slowly.
2.
To grow warm or hot by fermentation, or the development of heat by chemical action; as, green hay heats in a mow, and manure in the dunghill.



Heat  v.  Heated; as, the iron though heat red-hot. (Obs. or Archaic)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Heat" Quotes from Famous Books



... discussion thus given were well sustained on both sides, and crimination and recrimination increased with the heat and intensity of the campaign. The gradual disruption of parties, and the new and radical attitudes assumed by men of independent thought, gave ample occasion to indulge in such epithets as "apostates," "renegades," and "traitors." Unusual acrimony grew out of the zeal of ...
— Abraham Lincoln: A History V1 • John G. Nicolay and John Hay

... inconceivable, when he is told that the existence of the visible and palpable scene before him should be converted into a problem of apparently invincible difficulty. Yet so it is. The metaphysician first carries off in triumph what are called its secondary qualities, as colour and heat, proving them to be no qualities of matter, but of mind, or the sensitive being. He next assails what had been pronounced to be its primary or essential qualities; the dark tangible mass that he had left behind is not suffered to retain its ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 • Various

... (20. Dr. Brakenridge, 'Theory of Diathesis,' 'Medical Times,' June 19 and July 17, 1869.) It was formerly thought that the colour of the skin and the character of the hair were determined by light or heat; and although it can hardly be denied that some effect is thus produced, almost all observers now agree that the effect has been very small, even after exposure during many ages. But this subject will be more properly ...
— The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex • Charles Darwin

... both names, I hear—did fairly well as a queen, as a coquette and as a promoter of excursions on the river—until she fleshened up. Then she flivvered. Doctor Johnson was a fat man and he suffered from prickly heat, and from Boswell, and from the fact that he couldn't eat without spilling most of the gravy on his second mezzanine landing. As a thin and spindly stripling Napoleon altered the map of Europe and stood many nations on their heads. It was after he had grown fat and pursy that he landed on ...
— Cobb's Anatomy • Irvin S. Cobb

... huddroun,[134] Mony slut, daw, and sleepy duddroun, Him servit aye with sonnyie;[135] He drew them furth intill a chain, And Belial with a bridle rein Ever lashed them on the lunyie:[136] In Daunce they were so slaw of feet, They gave them in the fire a heat, And ...
— English Satires • Various


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