Reheats

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To apply heat once more to food or items that have cooled after previous heating for the sake of consumption or use
2. To warm food or objects again after they have cooled from earlier heating
3. The act of making previously heated items hot once more before use or consumption

Etymology: "Reheats" is the third-person singular present form of "reheat," so it simply carries the same history as the verb it comes from. That verb is a plain compound: the prefix "re-," meaning "again," attached to "heat." Both parts are ancient in English. "Heat" descends from Old English "hǣtu," and the "re-" prefix traces back through Latin "re-" and Old French "re-" to a Proto-Italic root meaning "back" or "again." The prefix is the productive part of the word. English has long attached "re-" to verbs to signal repetition, so "reheat" needed no special coinage: once speakers had "heat" and wanted to describe warming something a second time, the combination was transparent. The word's meaning is therefore exactly what its parts suggest, with nothing lost or reversed along the way.

Synonyms: warms, reheats

Antonyms: cools