See Also:

hot(1) (iou)



hot adjective. Compar. & superl. -tt-.
[Old English hat = Old Frisian, Old Saxon het (Dutch heet), Old High German hei (German heiss), Old Norse heitr, from Germanic.]
Having or giving out a high degree of heat; of or at a high temperature, very warm. OE.
J. Conrad A grey rock which smokes like a hot cinder after a shower. J. Steinbeck The hot sun beat on the earth. Day Lewis We were there during the phenomenally hot July of 1911.
b. (Of food or drink) prepared by heating and consumed before it has time to cool; fig. recent, fresh in people's minds. ME.
E. O'Brien He had brought her some croissants hot from the oven.
c. Of metal, esp. iron: sufficiently high above melting point to flow readily. L19.
d. At a high voltage, live. E20.
e. Radioactive. Also, (of an atom, molecule, etc.) possessing extra energy in some form (nuclear, electronic, vibrational, etc.); excited. colloq. M20.
Hist. Designating a quality associated with heat and regarded in medieval and later times as one of the four qualities inherent in all things. Cf. cold, dry, moist. OE.
At a high emotional pitch; esp. enthusiastic (for), keen (on). Also, following closely in pursuit. OE.
R. Brautigan He ran around the house,..with the dog hot after him. E. Jong 'Why are you a feminist?' I..asked a guy..who is very hot for the movement. Jilly Cooper The middle classes are obsessively hot on table manners.
b. Lustful, amorous, sexually aroused. Of a book, play, etc.: erotic, salacious. ME.
F. M. Colby A hot young satyr in pursuit of nymphs. Music Week No 'hot' videos required.
c. Very angry, indignant. Also = hot-tempered below. ME.
T. Morrison More words were exchanged, hot words and dark.
Attended with feverish or violent exertion; (of a contest, debate, etc.) fiercely contested, intense. Formerly also, of an epidemic: raging violently. OE.
Defoe The Plague grows hot in the City. A. Burgess The Stage Society was able, after months of hot argument, to agree.
Producing an effect as of heat or burning, esp. on the nerves of taste or on the mucous membrane; pungent, biting, acrid. ME.
H. Day I had some curry..which was so hot that it well nigh took the skin off my tongue.
a. Feeling an uncomfortable sensation of heat. Usu. pred. LME.
C. Phillips He began to feel hot as the climb became harder.
b. Producing or accompanied by (excessive) sensations of heat. M16.
J. Purcell Violent Hot Pains in the Lower-Belly. A. Sillitoe His uniform was too hot, and he unbuttoned the tunic.
Difficult or awkward to deal with; spec. (a) (of circumstances, a situation) uncomfortable, dangerous; (b) (of a hit, return, etc., in a ball-game) difficult for an opponent to cope with; (c) Criminals' slang (of property) stolen and hard to dispose of because easily identifiable; (of a person) wanted by the police; (d) (orig. US) (of goods, an area of work, etc.) affected by a trade-union dispute. E17.
G. F. Kennan The place was well selected from the standpoint of making a getaway if things became hotter.
a. Hunting. Of a scent: fresh, strong, intense. M17.
b. Of a participant in a children's seeking or guessing game: very close to finding or guessing what is sought. L19.
Of a shade of colour: (unpleasantly) intense. E19.
C. McCullers His socks and tie were a hot red.
Exceptionally good, skilful, or successful. Freq. in neg. contexts. colloq. L19.
Daily Express The Deutsches have some pretty hot snipers. W. Boyd A pair of opera glasses..that I use to see bettermy eyesight's not too hot.
a. Racing. Of a favourite: strongly fancied. slang. L19.
b. Currently popular or in demand. M20.
Standard Eddie Murphy has firmly established himself as America's hottest box office comedian. Hairdo Ideas One of the hottest trends this season are hair extensions.
a. Of information etc.: completely new; esp. novel and exciting. E20.
B. Schulberg The idea is so hot I don't want to give anybody time to steal it. N. Barber If you get onto something hot..phone me.
b. Of a treasury note: just issued. E20.
Of jazz etc.: strongly rhythmical and emotional. Opp. COOL adjective 5. Orig. US. E20.
Of a motor vehicle or aircraft: fast or powerful, esp. in relation to its size. colloq. M20.
Phrases etc.: a bit hot Austral. slang somewhat unreasonable. blow hot and cold: see BLOW verb1. boiling hot: see BOILING adverb. get it hot (and strong): see GET verb. give it hot to, give it hot and strong to: see GIVE verb. go hot and cold feel alternately hot and cold owing to fear etc. hot and bothered in a state of exasperated agitation. hot and hot arch. (of food) served piping hot. hot dark matter: see dark matter s.v. DARK adjective. hot on the heels of in close pursuit of. hot to trot ready and eager to engage in an activity. hot under the collar feeling anger, resentment, or embarrassment. like a cat on hot bricks: see CAT noun1. not so hot, not too hot colloq. only mediocre, indifferent in performance, health, etc. piping hot: see PIPING adverb. red-hot: see RED adjective. too hot to hold one (of a place) not safe to remain in (because of past misconduct etc.). white-hot: see WHITE adjective.
Special collocations & comb.: hot air fig. (colloq.) pretentious or unsubstantial statements or claims. hot-air adjective of or making use of heated air (esp. in hot-air balloon). hot bath: in hot water. hot blast: of heated air forced into a furnace. hot-blooded adjective ardent, passionate. hot bottle = hot-water bottle below. hotbrain arch. = HOTHEAD. hot-brained adjective (arch.) = HOTHEADED. hot button US colloq. (a) an emotionally or politically sensitive topic or issue; (b) a commercially attractive feature of a new product. hot cake (a) US a griddle-cake; (b) go like hot cakes, sell like hot cakes, be sold extremely fast, be a popular commodity. hot cathode: heated to emit electrons thermionically. hot chisel: see CHISEL noun1 1. hot cockles (obsolete exc. dial.) a rustic game in which one player is blindfolded and has to guess which of the others struck him or her. hot coppers: see COPPER noun1 6. hot cross bun: see CROSS-. hot cupboard an airing cupboard; a cupboard in which crockery is made warm for a meal. hot-desking the practice in an office of allocating desks to workers when they are required or on a rota system, rather than giving workers their own desks. hot-dipped adjective coated in metal, either by being dipped in the molten metal or by being dipped hot in a bath of liquid. hot flash, hot flush a feeling of feverish heat, esp. as a menopausal symptom. hot GOSPELLER. hot key Computing: that initiates a complex operation. hot laboratory: designed for the safe handling of radioactive material. hot line a direct exclusive telecommunications link, esp. for use by heads of government in emergencies. hot-link noun & verb (Computing) (a) noun a connection between documents or applications, which enables material from one source to be incorporated into another (spec. one providing for automatic updating); a hypertext link; (b) verb trans. connect (two documents) by means of a hot-link. hot list (a) a list of stolen items or of persons who have committed an offence; (b) a list of important, popular, or favourite things. hot-metal adjective (Printing, chiefly Hist.) using metal type or slugs cast by a (Linotype, Monotype, etc.) composing-machine. hot money capital transferred from one country to another for the sake of high interest rates or to avoid the effects of currency devaluation. hot pants (a) US slang an uncontrollable sexual passion (esp. in have hot pants for, have got hot pants for); (b) slang a sexually insatiable person; (c) brief shorts worn by young women, esp. as a fashion in the early 1970s. hotplate (a) a heated flat surface on a stove or electric cooker; (b) a low flat-topped portable device for keeping food warm. hot potato: see POTATO noun. hot-press noun & verb (a) noun a press of glazed boards and hot metal plates for smoothing paper or cloth or making plywood; (b) verb trans. press (paper etc.) in a hot-press. hot-presser a person who hot-presses paper etc. hot pursuit close pursuit, spec. of a criminal etc. across an international frontier. hot rod (a) a motor vehicle specially modified to give high power and speed; (b) = hot-rodder below. hot-rod verb intrans. drive a hot rod. hot-rodder a driver of a hot rod. hot seat slang (a) US the electric chair; (b) fig. a position of difficult responsibility. hot-shoe: see SHOE noun. hot-short adjective (of metal) brittle in its hot state (opp. cold-short adjective). hot-shortness hot-short quality or condition. hot shower: in hot water. hot spot (a) a small area in a surface or body that is at a higher temperature than its surroundings; (b) a lively nightclub; (c) a place of danger or military activity. hot spring a spring of naturally hot water. hot-stove adjective (N. Amer.) designating a discussion about a favourite sport, esp. baseball, carried on during the off-season. hot stuff (a) sexually explicit material; (b) (a designation of) a woman reputed to be highly sexed; (c) (a designation of) a person or thing of outstanding quality. hot tap: dispensing hot water. hot tear Metallurgy a split produced in a casting as the hot metal cools. hot-tempered adjective impulsively angry, short-tempered. hot ticket colloq. a person or thing that is much in demand. hot tip colloq. an unusually reliable tip for the winner of a race etc. hot tub a wooden tub, freq. accommodating several people, filled with hot aerated water for recreation or physical therapy. hot tube in some early internal-combustion engines, a closed tube which projected from the cylinder and was heated externally by a flame, so that it ignited the mixture forced into it during the compression stroke. hot war an open war, involving active hostilities. hot water fig. (colloq.) trouble, difficulty (chiefly in in hot water, into hot water). hot-water adjective using or containing heated water; hot-water bottle, (US) hot-water bag, a container, now usu. made of rubber, filled with hot water, esp. to warm a bed. hot well (a) = hot spring above; (b) a reservoir in a condensing steam engine. hot wind: heated by passing over plains or prairies. hot-wire adjective operated by the expansion of heated wire. hot-work verb trans. work (metal), e.g. by rolling, forging, etc., while it is still hot and above the temperature at which recrystallization takes place.
hotly adverb LME.
hotness noun M16.
hottish adjective L16.