warm up

Meaning

To heat food or drink that has already been cooked and has cooled down, making it hot enough to eat or drink again. It is commonly used when dealing with leftovers.

Examples

• I can warm up some soup for you if you're hungry.

  I can warm up some soup for you if you're hungry.

• Just put the leftovers in the microwave to warm them up.

  Just put the leftovers in the microwave to warm them up.

• He warmed up yesterday's pizza for breakfast.

  He warmed up yesterday's pizza for breakfast.

• Let me warm up your coffee; it must be cold by now.

  Let me warm up your coffee; it must be cold by now.

• You should warm up the stew slowly on the stove.

  You should warm up the stew slowly on the stove.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ I will warm the soup up to eat.

  ✓ I will warm the soup up.

  While 'warm the soup up' is grammatically correct, adding 'to eat' is redundant because warming up food already implies it is for consumption.

• ✗ Can you hot up this pizza for me?

  ✓ Can you warm up this pizza for me?

  'Hot up' is not a standard English phrasal verb for heating food; 'warm up' or 'heat up' should be used.

Related Expressions

Practice

• If you don't want to cook, you can just ___ yesterday's pasta.

  💡 Heat up food that is already cooked.

  Show answer

  warm up

• I need to ___ my tea because it has gone cold.

  💡 Make a cold beverage hot again.

  Show answer

  warm up