warm up
2 meanings
do gentle exercise to prepare your body before sport
What does "warm up" mean in this sense?
Examples
- You should always warm up before going for a run.
- The players are warming up on the pitch before the match.
- She didn't warm up properly and pulled a muscle in the first five minutes.
How to use it
This is the most common pattern. The verb is used without an object — the subject is always the person doing the exercise.
You should always warm up before a workout.
Use 'before' to say when the warm-up happens — before the main sport or exercise.
The swimmers warmed up before the race.
Adverbs like 'properly' or 'quickly' come after the phrasal verb to describe how the warm-up is done.
Make sure you warm up properly — don't rush it.
The imperative form is very common in coaching or fitness advice.
Warm up before you start lifting weights.
This verb often follows modal verbs or phrases like 'need to', 'remember to', or 'try to' when giving advice.
Remember to warm up before training, especially in cold weather.
Common Collocations
Common Mistakes
In the exercise sense, 'warm up' is intransitive — it has no direct object. You cannot put a word between 'warm' and 'up' in this sense.
'Warm up' happens before exercise to prepare your body; 'cool down' happens after exercise to help your body recover. These are opposites, so using one when you mean the other changes the meaning completely.
'Warm up' can also mean to make food or a room hotter, but that is a different meaning. In the exercise sense, the subject is always a person preparing for physical activity — not food or an engine.
Usage
This phrasal verb is neutral and used in all everyday contexts related to sport and fitness. The noun form 'a warm-up' (hyphenated) is equally common, so it is useful to learn both: 'I always do a warm-up' and 'I always warm up'.
become more excited or lively (an audience or atmosphere)
Sense 2: What does "warm up" mean?
Examples
- The crowd warmed up after the comedian's first few jokes.
- It took a while, but the audience had warmed up by the time the headliner came on.
- The atmosphere in the room warmed up gradually as more guests arrived.
How to use it
This is the core intransitive pattern — the audience or atmosphere is the subject and nothing follows the verb.
The crowd warmed up after the opening act got everyone on their feet.
Adverbs or adverbial phrases describing how or when the change happened are very common with this sense.
The audience warmed up gradually as the evening went on.
Adverbs placed before 'warm up' emphasise the gradual or delayed nature of the shift in energy.
The theatre crowd finally warmed up by the second act.
A clause or phrase explaining what caused the change often follows, using 'after', 'once', or 'by'.
The atmosphere warmed up once the DJ switched to more familiar tracks.
Common Collocations
Common Mistakes
In this sense, the audience or crowd is always the subject — the thing doing the warming up. Don't put a performer as the subject with an audience as an object; that is a different, causative sense with a different meaning.
In this intransitive sense, nothing comes after 'warm up'. If you add an object (like 'the crowd'), you have switched to the transitive causative sense, which means someone is making the crowd enthusiastic rather than the crowd becoming enthusiastic on its own.
'Warm up' (in this sense) describes a crowd or atmosphere becoming lively, while 'warm up to' means to gradually start to like or trust a specific person or thing. They look similar but have different structures and meanings.
Usage
This phrasal verb describes a gradual change, so adverbs like 'finally', 'slowly', and 'gradually' are natural partners. It is neutral in register and works equally well in spoken conversation and written reviews.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does 'warm up' have a noun form? Can I say 'a warm-up'?
Yes! The noun form is 'a warm-up' (written with a hyphen), and it is used very often. You can say 'do a warm-up', 'a ten-minute warm-up', or 'the warm-up before training'. It is useful to learn both forms together.
Does 'warm up' always mean exercise? I've heard it used in other ways.
No, 'warm up' has other meanings too — for example, it can mean heating food or a room, or it can describe an audience becoming more enthusiastic. However, when the subject is a person and the context is sport or fitness, it almost always means physical preparation before exercise.
Can I use 'warm up' in the passive — for example, 'the muscles were warmed up'?
Not in this sense. Because 'warm up' (exercise preparation) is intransitive — meaning there is no object — you cannot use it in the passive. The person always does the action themselves.
What is the difference between 'warm up' and 'limber up'?
'Limber up' focuses specifically on stretching to improve flexibility, while 'warm up' is broader and includes any kind of gentle preparatory movement — jogging, stretching, or light drills. 'Limber up' is also less common in everyday speech.
How long does a warm-up need to be? Are there common time expressions used with this verb?
In terms of language, yes — time expressions like 'for five minutes', 'for ten minutes', or 'quickly' are very natural with this verb. For example: 'We warmed up for fifteen minutes before the match' or 'Just warm up quickly before we start'.
Can 'warm up' in this sense be used in the passive?
No — because this is an intransitive verb in this sense, a passive construction isn't possible. The audience or crowd is always the subject experiencing the change, so there is no object to move into the subject position of a passive sentence.
Does 'warm up' always suggest a slow change, or can it happen quickly?
It typically implies a gradual thaw from initial coolness or reserve, and collocations like 'slowly', 'gradually', and 'finally' reinforce this. You can use 'quickly warmed up', but if the change is described as sudden or dramatic, 'liven up' might sound more natural.
Can the subject be something other than an audience or crowd?
Yes — abstract or atmospheric subjects work well too. 'The atmosphere warmed up', 'the mood warmed up', and 'the room warmed up' are all natural. The key is that the subject represents a social or emotional environment, not a person preparing for exercise or an object being heated.
Does 'warm up' have other meanings? Could my sentence be misunderstood?
Yes, 'warm up' has several other senses — including doing exercises before a workout, heating food, and a performer making an audience enthusiastic. Context usually makes the meaning clear: if the subject is a crowd, audience, or atmosphere, listeners will understand this sense without confusion.
Is this expression used more in writing or in speech?
It works equally well in both. You'll find it in written concert and event reviews ('the crowd warmed up by the third song') and in everyday spoken conversation about social gatherings. It has a neutral, natural feel in either context.
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