different between swelt vs melt

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sw?lt/
• Rhymes: -?lt

Etymology 1

From Middle English swelten, from Old English sweltan, from Proto-Germanic *sweltan?. Cognate to Dutch zwelten (“to die”).

Verb

swelt (third-person singular simple present swelts, present participle swelting, simple past swelted or swolt, past participle swelted or swolten)

1. (obsolete outside dialects) To die.
2. (obsolete outside dialects) To succumb or be overcome with emotion, heat, etc.; to faint or swelter
   • 1567, Arthur Golding; Ovid's Metamorphoses Book. 1; line 571:

     Immediatly in smoldering heate of Love the t'one did swelt,

   • a. 1656, Joseph Hall, Songs in the Night

     Thine Israel, o God, had never endured so hard a bondage under Pharaoh, as to be over-swelted in the Egyptian furnaces

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

Etymology 2

Verb

swelt

1. (obsolete) simple past tense of swell

Anagrams

• welts

English

Etymology

From Middle English melten, from Old English meltan (“to consume by fire, melt, burn up; dissolve, digest”) and Old English mieltan (“to melt; digest; refine, purge; exhaust”), from Proto-Germanic *meltan? (“to dissolve, melt”) and Proto-Germanic *maltijan? (“to dissolve, melt”), both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“melt”). Cognate with Icelandic melta (“to melt, digest”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?lt/
• Rhymes: -?lt

Noun

melt (countable and uncountable, plural melts)

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. A wax-based substance for use in an oil burner as an alternative to mixing oils and water.
6. (Britain, slang, derogatory) An idiot.

Derived terms

• snowmelt, snow melt

Translations

Verb

melt (third-person singular simple present melts, present participle melting, simple past melted or (rare) molt, past participle melted or molten)

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, figuratively) 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.
   • 1687, John Dryden, A Song for Cecilia's Day

     For pity melts the mind to love.

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

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

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

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Translations