Word Confusion: Meld versus Melt

Plural for the noun: melds
Gerund: melding

Third person present verb: melds
Past tense or past participle: melded
Present participle: melding

Plural for the noun: melts
Gerund: melting

Third person present verb: melts
Past tense or past participle: melted
Present participle: melting

A completed set or run of cards in rummy, canasta, and other card games ²

• Any combination of cards to be melded

The act of merging or blending

Verb, intransitive:
To present a meld ¹

To become merged

Verb, transitive:
To cause to merge ¹

[In rummy, canasta, and other card games] Lay down or declare (a combination of cards) in order to score points ²

To declare or display (a card or combination of cards in a hand) for inclusion in one’s score in various card games, such as pinochle

• Metal or other material in a melted condition
• An amount melted at any one time
• [North American; with modifier] A sandwich, hamburger, or other dish containing or topped with melted cheese

The spleen, especially that of a cow, pig, etc. ²

Verb, intransitive:
Make or become liquefied by heat ¹

Make or become more tender or loving

[With adverbial] Leave or disappear unobtrusively

• [melt into] Change or merge imperceptibly into (another form or state)

Verb, transitive:
Make or become liquefied by heat ¹

• [melt something down] Melt something, especially a metal article, so that the material it is made of can be used again
• Dissolve in liquid

Make or become more tender or loving

He held “a meld of diverse ethnic stocks” (Kenneth L. Woodward).

It was a perfect meld of art and social comment.

Jane laid down ten melds last night!

Verb, intransitive:
The nylon bristles shrivel and meld together.

Many dishes are improved if allowed to meld overnight.

She sang the first verse again, listening to the way the words melded with the music.

Leave for 30 minutes for the flavors to meld.

The white smoke and cannon’s glare melded into a smear of horror before his eyes.

Verb, transitive:
Australia’s winemakers have melded modern science with traditional art.

It “was a professional position that seemed to meld all his training” (Art Jahnke).

That Betty went and melded four kings.

The blue colour of smalt derives from the addition of cobalt oxide to a potash glass melt during manufacture.

Dingwell et al. have shown at low dissolved water contents in rhyolitic melts, large changes in melt viscosity can occur for very small changes of water content.

I’ll have a tuna melt, please.

I don’t know, but beef melt just doesn’t sound appetizing.

Verb, intransitive:
Place under the broiler until the cheese has melted.

The icebergs were melting away.

Add a cup of sugar and boil until the sugar melts.

She was so beautiful that I melted.

The compromise was accepted and the opposition melted away.

The figure melted into thin air.

The cheers melted into gasps of admiration.

That shortbread just melts in my mouth.

Verb, transitive:
The hot metal melted the wax.

Beautiful objects are being melted down and sold for scrap.

Richard gave her a smile that melted her heart.

1. 1930s, perhaps in a blend of melt and weld (join together).
2. Late 19th century (originally US) from the German melden meaning announce.

1. Old English meltan, mieltan, is of Germanic origin and related to the Old Norse melta meaning to malt, digest, from an Indo-European root shared by the Greek meldein meaning to melt, the Latin mollis meaning soft, also related to malt.
2. First recorded in 1575–85 as a variant of milt.