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Warm up meaning

Warm up means to do gentle exercise to prepare your body for sport. It can also mean to become warmer, or make someone or something warmer.

Check yourself: 3 questions

warm up

warm up · warmed · warming

B1No object+3 more meanings

Always warm up for ten minutes before you run.

Warm up meanings and examples

4 meanings, each with its own CEFR level. A level marked ~ is our estimate: Oxford and Cambridge give none for that meaning.

  1. 1do gentle exercise to prepare your body for sport
  2. 2become warmer, or make someone or something warmer
  3. 3heat food that was cooked before
  4. 4become more lively, or make people more lively
  1. 1

    Do gentle exercise to prepare your body for sport

    warm up

    B1No object

    • Always warm up for ten minutes before you run.
    • The players are warming up on the pitch.
    • Did you warm up before your swim?
  2. 2

    Become warmer, or make someone or something warmer

    warm somebody or something up

    A2Separable

    • Come in and warm up by the heater.
    • It should warm up a bit this afternoon.
    • A cup of tea will warm you up.
  3. 3

    Heat food that was cooked before

    warm something up

    C1Separable

    • I’ll warm up last night’s soup for lunch.
    • Can you warm the pizza up in the oven?
    • Don’t warm up rice more than once.
  4. 4

    Become more lively, or make people more lively

    warm somebody up

    C1Separable

    • The party warmed up after ten.
    • A comedian warmed up the crowd before the show.
    • The game didn’t warm up until the second half.
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Is warm up separable?

Warm up can have no object: I warmed up. Let’s warm up. With an object, it is separable: warm up the soup, warm the soup up, warm it up.

The noun is a warm-up, with a hyphen: a five-minute warm-up. In class, a warm-up is a short, easy activity at the start of the lesson.

Verb tenses for warm up

PresentI warm up · she warms up
Pastwarmed up
Present perfecthave warmed up
-ing formwarming up

Common mistakes with warm up

What learners often say, and what to say instead.

  • Wrong: This coffee is cold. Can you warm up it?

    Right: This coffee is cold. Can you warm it up?

    A pronoun goes between warm and up.

  • Wrong: I always do warm up before football.

    Right: I always warm up before football.

    Use warm up as a verb, or say do a warm-up.

  • Wrong: We need to warm up our body before the race.

    Right: We need to warm up before the race.

    Warm up for exercise needs no object.

Synonyms and opposites of warm up

Words close to it, and words that mean the opposite.

Similar

  • stretchmake your muscles long; often part of a warm-up
  • heat upmake food or a room hot; very close for food
  • reheatheat cooked food again

Opposite

Warm up quiz

Three quick questions. Pick an answer to see if it is right and why.

  1. 1Before the match, the team ___ for fifteen minutes.

  2. 2Choose the right sentence.

  3. 3At a concert, a band plays first to warm up the crowd. What does that mean?

Find your level

The phrasal verbs test adapts as you answer, from A2 to C1, and shows which ones you miss.

Test yourself on warm upTake the full test

Warm up FAQ

Questions people ask about warm up.

Warm up vs work out: what is the difference?

You warm up before you work out. Warming up is short and gentle; working out is the main exercise.

Warm up vs heat up: what is the difference?

For food, both work. Heat up sounds hotter. For people and sport, use warm up.

What is a warm-up?

A warm-up is a short easy activity before the main one: a warm-up before running, or a warm-up game at the start of class.

Use warm up in real conversations

In Slova you learn new words with picture cards, then use them when you talk about the things you love. A few minutes a day, at your level.

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