melt down

melt down
verb
reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating
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melt butter

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melt down gold

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The wax melted in the sun

• Syn: ↑melt, ↑run
• Derivationally related forms: ↑meltable (for: ↑melt), ↑melt (for: ↑melt), ↑melting (for: ↑melt)
• Hypernyms: ↑dissolve, ↑resolve, ↑break up
• Hyponyms: ↑fuse, ↑try, ↑render
• Verb Group: ↑run, ↑bleed
• Verb Frames:
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Something ——s

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Somebody ——s something

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Something ——s something

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melt down
1. To turn metal into a molten state
2. (of fuel in a nuclear reactor) to overheat, causing radioactivity to escape
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Main Entry: ↑melt

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ˌmelt ˈdown [transitive] [present tense I/you/we/they melt down he/she/it melts down present participle melting down past tense melted down past participle melted down] phrasal verb
to heat a metal until it becomes liquid, especially in order to make something new from it
Thesaurus: metalworking and forms of metalhyponym types of metalhypernym
Main entry: melt

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melt down [phrasal verb]
1 a of a nuclear reactor : to heat up accidentally, melt, and release radiation

The reactor's core melted down.

1 b : to experience a very fast collapse or failure

The stock market has melted down.

— see also ↑meltdown
2 melt (something) down or melt down (something) : to melt (something) so that it can be used for another purpose

melt down a coin

The stolen gold has probably already been melted down.

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Main Entry: ↑melt

Useful english dictionary. 2012.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • melt-down — s.m.inv. ES ingl. 1. TS fis. → fusione del nocciolo 2. TS econ. fig., caduta, crollo finanziario: il melt down delle azioni {{line}} {{/line}} VARIANTI: meltdown. DATA: sec. XX. ETIMO: ingl. melt down, comp. di (to) melt fondere e down giù …   Dizionario italiano

  • melt down — /meltˈdaun, ingl. ˈmɛltˌdaun/ o meltdown [vc. ingl., dal v. to melt down «sciogliere»] s. m. inv. (fig.) crollo, caduta, tracollo …   Sinonimi e Contrari. Terza edizione

  • melt|down — «MEHLT DOWN», noun. 1. a condition in which the radioactive fuel of a nuclear reactor melts through its insulation and is released because of a breakdown of its cooling system: »If there were to be a meltdown, the release of radioactivity would… …   Useful english dictionary

  • melt down — phrasal verb [transitive] Word forms melt down : present tense I/you/we/they melt down he/she/it melts down present participle melting down past tense melted down past participle melted down to heat a metal until it becomes liquid, especially in… …   English dictionary

  • melt down — PHRASAL VERB If an object is melted down, it is heated until it melts, so that the material can be used to make something else. [be V ed P] Some of the guns were melted down and used to help build a statue... [V n P] When Jefferson didn t like a… …   English dictionary

  • melt·down — /ˈmɛltˌdaʊn/ noun, pl downs 1 : an accident in which the core of a nuclear reactor melts and releases radiation [count] a nuclear meltdown [noncount] fears that an accident could cause meltdown 2 a : a very fast collapse or failure …   Useful english dictionary

  • melt down — phr verb Melt down is used with these nouns as the object: ↑metal …   Collocations dictionary

  • melt down — melt …   English contemporary dictionary

  • melt down — Synonyms and related words: colliquate, concentrate, cut, decoagulate, decoct, defrost, deliquesce, dissolve, distill, essentialize, express, fluidify, fluidize, flux, fuse, hold in solution, infuse, leach, liquefy, liquesce, liquidize, lixiviate …   Moby Thesaurus

  • melt down — intransitive verb Date: 1956 to suffer a meltdown ; collapse …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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