warm
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɔːm/
ipa: /wɔɹm/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)m
Forms: form: warmer
form: warmest
form: warme
Etymology: From Middle English warm, werm, from Old English wearm, from Proto-West Germanic *warm, from Proto-Germanic *warmaz, either from Proto-Indo-European *wór-mo-s, from *wer- (“to burn”), or Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰor-mo-s, from the root *gʷʰer- (“warm, hot”). Cognate with West Frisian waarm, Saterland Frisian woorm, Dutch warm, German warm, Swedish varm, Icelandic varmur, Ancient Greek θερμός (thermós) (in which case perhaps a distant doublet of thermos), Latin formus, Sanskrit घर्म (gharmá), or alternatively from Proto-Indo-European *wer- (“to burn”), related to Hittite 𒉿𒊏𒀀𒉌 (warāni, “to burn”), Armenian վառել (vaṙel, “to burn, heat, warm”), Old Church Slavonic варити (variti, “to cook, boil”).
Senses: examples: text: The tea is still warm.
text: This is a very warm room.
text: Warm and still is the summer night.
ref: 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Herons of Elmwood:
text: It seemed I was too excited for sleep, too warm, too young.
ref: 1985, Robert Ferro, Blue Star:
text: While the study doesn’t directly shed light on why, it suggested that maintaining a similar degree of mobility as the climate changed to the warmer and wetter pattern we have today could have imparted additional stress as the mammoth encountered unfamiliar environments or restricted its movement.
ref: 2021 August 12, Katie Hunt, “Mammoths were the original ‘ice road truckers,’ traveling vast distances across the Arctic”, in CNN:
text: Kids jump into Lake Michigan during unseasonably warm conditions in Chicago on February 26, 2024. […] This winter was the warmest on record for the Lower 48, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information said Friday. Records date to the late 1800s.
ref: 2024 March 8, Mary Gilbert and Eric Zerkel, “Winter is over, and it was the warmest on record. Here’s what the US missed out on this season”, in CNN:
glosses: Of a somewhat high temperature, often but not always connoting that the high temperature is pleasant rather than uncomfortable.
examples: text: We have a warm friendship.
glosses: Friendly and with affection.
glosses: Having a color in the part of the visible electromagnetic spectrum between red and yellow-green.
examples: text: Earlier you were way off, but now you're getting warmer.
text: 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.
ref: 1876, William Black, “An Encounter”, in Madcap Violet. […], volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 74:
glosses: Close to a goal or correct answer.
glosses: Fresh, of a scent; still able to be traced.
examples: text: a warm piano sound
glosses: Communicating a sense of comfort, ease, or pleasantness.
examples: text: a warm debate, with strong words exchanged
text: Mirth, and youth, and warm desire!
ref: 1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “Song on May Morning”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC:
text: They say he's a warm man and does not care to be made mouths at.
ref: 1712 September 22 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “THURSDAY, September 11, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 481; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
ref: 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:
text: To the strength and fierceness of barbarians they added a contempt for life, which was derived from a warm persuasion of the immortality and transmigration of the soul.
ref: 1776–1788, Edward Gibbon, chapter I, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC:
text: I had been none of the warmest of partisans.
ref: 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
glosses: Ardent, zealous.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 258:
text: 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
ref: 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], →OCLC:
glosses: Well off as to property, or in good circumstances; prosperous.
examples: text: The circular iron platform over there is used in the task of tyring the wheels, a warm job, too, by the way.
ref: 1929, The Listener, numbers 41-50, page 552:
glosses: Requiring arduous effort.
Synonyms: word: warm
word: tepid
word: mild
word: balmy
Hyponyms: word: lukewarm
word: overwarm
word: underwarm
Coordinate terms: word: cold
word: hot
Derived terms: word: cold hands, warm heart
word: lukewarm
word: milk-warm
word: muffin-warm
word: piss-warm
word: warm antibody
word: warm as life
word: warm as toast
word: warm-blooded
word: warm-bloodedness
word: warm body
word: warm boot
word: warm dark matter
word: warm-down
word: warm front
word: warm fuzzy
word: warm hatch
word: warmhearted
word: warm-hearted
word: warm hose
word: warm-hot intergalactic medium
word: warm hub
word: warm ionized medium
word: warmish
word: warm line
word: warmly
word: warm prop
word: warm regards
word: warm space
word: Warm Springs
word: warm storage
word: warm store
word: warm transfer
word: warm up
word: warm-up
word: warm wallet
word: warm-water port
word: warm working
word: wet and warm
Related terms: heated
hot
steamy
temperature
tepid