Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hot adj.

1. in sexual senses.

(a) sexually aroused, sexually available.

[UK]Chaucer General Prologue to Canterbury Tales line 97: So hote he lovede, that by nightertale, He sleep namore than dooth a nightyngale.
[UK]Lyly Euphues (1916) 105: If thou be as hot as mount Aetna, feign thyself as cold as the hill Caucasus; carry two faces in one hood, cover thy flaming fancy with feigned ashes.
[UK]Book of Sir Thomas Moore facs.(S) (1911) I iii: These hott ffrenchmen needsly will haue sporte.
[UK]Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 I ii: A fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta.
[UK]Tourneur Revenger’s Tragedy (1967) I i: Oh ’ware an old man hot and vicious.
[UK]Jonson Bartholomew Fair II v: Here you may ha’ your punk and your pig in state, sir, both piping hot.
[UK]Beaumont & Fletcher Wild-Goose-Chase II iii: It seems ye are hot, the suburbs will supply ye.
[UK]W. Davenant Wits V i: We ladies of the town, or court, Have not such waxen hearts, that ev’ry beam From a hot lover’s eye can melt them through Our breasts!
[UK]H. Glapthorne Wit in a Constable III i: And how ist bully, hast not found these girles Of a hot appetite, how often ha?
[UK]Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk II 363: I believe that same lady is hot, or else that some greyhound hath covered her lately.
[UK] ‘Mine Own Sweet Honey-Bird-Chuck’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 29: I’ll put a hot thing in thy belly.
[US]C. Sackville ‘Letter from Lord Buckhurst to Mr. Etheredge’ in Thorpe Etheredge: Poems (1963) 35: Until her hot-tailed Majesty, / Being happily reclaimed by me.
[UK] ‘Prologue to a reviv’d Play’ Covent Garden Drollery 83: Like Bridegrooms, hott to go to Bed ere noone!
[UK]Vanbrugh Relapse III iii: Young men are hot I know, but they don’t boil over at that rate neither; besides my Wench’s Wedding-Gown is not come home yet.
[UK] ‘The Country-man’s Delight’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 124: He Laughs to see the Girls so hot, / and jumps in with the rest.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 123: He laughs to see the girls so hot.
[UK]Sexes Mis-Match’d 200: Ha! Frank you’ra hot Lover, but a Loiterer of a Husband, I see.
[UK]W. Kennett ‘Armour’ in Potent Ally 3: The hot daring Youth, whose giddy Lust [...] Resolves upon Fruition.
[UK]G. Colman Jealous Wife I i: She is [...] a very magazine of touchwood and gunpowder. You are hot enough too upon occasion, but then it’s over in an instant.
[UK] ‘Waggle Duff Peg’ Cuckold’s Nest 28: My woman’s so hot, indeed it’s hot stuff, / I scarcely can give the dear creature enough, / So, six times a night she is calling for me.
[UK]Talfourd & Seymour Sir Rupert, the Fearless I iv: She is too good by half – / I’m hot as Etna.
[US]‘Ned Buntline’ G’hals of N.Y. 68: A noise, like the meeting and smacking of a pair of hot, passion-fevered lips, fell on the air.
[US] ‘Two Sweethearts’ Bob Smith’s Clown Song and Joke Bk 23: I tried all in vain my hot feelings to smother.
[UK] ‘Miss Coote’s Confession’ in Pearl 6 Dec. 13: I was abed and asleep before she got home with the children, but she was so hot she left them to shift for themselves, and mounted me as you often see the cow do to the bull when she wants him to do his duty.
[UK]‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) IV 748: I was that hot [...] that I could have fucked night and day.
[Aus]Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 June 1/3: We always thought Dan O’Connor was a terror on carving. He doesn’t like it in stone though [...] No, something hot, with a nice litle piece of stuffing, is the line for him.
[US]‘Bob Sterling’ Town-Bull 26: She is hot too, and we often frig and suck each other [Ibid.] 29: ‘[He] gave me the hottest fuck he ever gave me in his life’.
[UK]W. Pett Ridge Minor Dialogues 276: My word! I’ll bet they were a ’ot lot.
[UK]‘Ramrod’ Nocturnal Meeting 49: Your drawers are dripping, and it’s [i.e. vaginal secretions] running down your stockings. What a hot little cat.
[US]I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 16: The frequenters of these theaters want what they call a ‘hot show,’ one coming as close to the line of indecency as the law will allow.
[UK]Somme-Times 31 July (2006) 118/2: And what a silly place to kiss . . . . we’re very hot in England now!
[US]Ethel Waters ‘Refrigeratin’ Papa’ 🎵 Refrigeratin’ papa, Mama’s gonna make you hot, / Yes, make you hot!
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 146: ‘She’s pretty — pretty hot, too’.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 318: A broad wont come across and a guy gets hot for her, so he marries her to get it.
[US]H. Miller Tropic of Cancer (1963) 102: Jesus, she was hot! I thought she’d tear the cock off me.
[Aus]R. Park Poor Man’s Orange 186: It was true what the blokes said, the quiet ones were the hottest.
[US]J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 380: You’ll not get me hot. I know your tricks.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 22: She was that hot for him.
[UK]S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 57: One clawful of lust-fingered-spread-squeeze resist that hot-bitch.
[US](con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 127: The girls would tell me those men would try to use coke to get them hot and have sex.
[US]L. Pettiway Workin’ It 167: I don’t know what attracted me to him. I guess I was hot in the ass and wanted some dick.
[UK]M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 60: Two businessmen flashed at her, she must be looking hot.

(b) of books, films etc, erotic, sexually arousing; thus of language, obscene.

[UK] ‘’Arry on the Turf’ Punch 29 Nov. 297/1: The jokes just as ’ot as they make ’em.
[UK]E.J. Milliken ’Arry Ballads 37: As most of our plays are now cribbed from the French, wy they’re all pooty hot.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Oct. 4/7: ’Ave you somerthing like De Rougemont, only better and more hot?
[Ire]Joyce letter 20 Dec. to Nora Barnacle, in Ellman Sel. Letters (1975) 191: I got your hot letter tonight and have been trying to picture you frigging your cunt in the closet.
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 23 Oct. 5/7: Something to smile at / That is cheap, good, clean, but not hot.
[UK]T. Norman Penny Showman 21: I handed him the stock of pictures and told him that when any young bloods paid to look through the glasses, that he was to tell them that he had some hot ones for them next week.
[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Sleeping Dogs’ in Spicy Detective Sept. 🌐 She made this picture. It was hot—plenty hot!
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 614: He felt as if he had just come from a hot time with a girl.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 80: The sheeny shoplifter is waitin’ to give you some hot lovin’.
[US]R. Chandler Playback 192: Some private eye whose idea of a hot scene was a dead, naked woman.
[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 88: Our smut factories have been working for years — hot books and swinging and everything.
[US]C. McFadden Serial 55: You got a hot answer back to that fan letter your wrote him.
[NZ]McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 112/2: that’s a bit hot! a protest against something unreasonable; eg ‘C’mon, Perce, that’s a bit hot, no need for that sort of language. There’s ladies present, in case you hadn’t noticed.’ c. 1910.
[US]T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 3: What was of utter importance was not Rosie Rottencrotch and her steaming-hot panties.
[US]‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 7: I was like, ‘Hot enough for ya? And I ain’t talking about the weather, fella’.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].
[Aus]L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] A naked female wasn’t the slightest bit risqué any more [...] strippers worked ‘hot’ — vibe shows and lesbian doubles.
[Aus]L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Girls working hot had shoved in and pulled out anything that would fit up their twats.
[US]H. Ellison Introduction in Pulling a Train’ [ebook] One-handed reading material, intended to keep truck drivers entertained in roadside toilets [...] Today, they’d be laughed out of the room [...] But at the time, oh, they were hot.

(c) orig. applied by men to women, sexy, sexually attractive.

[UK]Sporting Times 9 Jan. 1/4: ‘Look ’ere, my dear,’ said the Acting Manager, paternally, ‘you’ve only got to get into your broom [brougham] and the blooming roads’ll melt, you’re so bally ’ot’.
[UK]School Life in Paris 27: Bianca — a very hot society girl [...] fully alive to the pleasures of sensuality.
[UK]E. Pugh Harry The Cockney 77: One, more audacious than the rest, turned and kissed her hand to the boys [...] ‘That’s Lizzie Clark. She’s hot,’ said one.
[UK]Leo & Bastow [perf. George Bastow] ‘Beauty of the Guards’ 🎵 [of a man] What a boy, what a nut, what a scream, tut-tut / Very hot! What, what, what!
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 351: Hot little devil all the same.
[US](con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 76: She’s awful hot. Jeez, I thought she was going to feel me up.
D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 6 Feb. 13: She’ll poison her own husband [...] so she can have time to play around with someone she think is hot.
[US]C. Himes Crazy Kill 137: You guys’ll be out there chasing the hottest piece of tail in Harlem.
[US]N. Heard Howard Street 28: Give them a good hot supper and equally hot loving at night.
[US]L. Kramer Faggots 22: Plus being hot and gorgeous.
[UK]M. Amis London Fields 197: He scoured the planet for the very best and hottest young women, and paid them lots of money to go to bed with him.
[UK]G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 51: Alan Davis [...] was short and skinny and not as hot in the looks department to Caroline’s way of thinking.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 11 Apr. 7: I think Kylie’s very hot and I would like to give her one.
[UK]G. Iles Turning Angel 24: He’s so nice—not to mention hot.
[Aus]L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] Maybe Andi was holed up somewhere [...] with a hot guy.
[Aus]L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] You never let on he was hot. Gonna shag him?
B. Leopold ‘With One Stone’ in ThugLit Apr. [ebook] ‘You think his wife will be hot? [...] That'd be a plus’.
[Aus]me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 She’s so fuckin’ hot, any cunt who’s not a complete faggot would wanna fuck her.
[UK]‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 224: Especially if that person was oh I don’t know insanely hot.
[US]D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 66: The woman with the shoulder-length brown hair is the hottest woman in the restaurant.

2. in senses of immediacy, action.

(a) urgent, pressing, poss. dangerous.

[UK]Udall Ralph Roister Doister I i: And in all the hot haste must she be his wife.
[UK]Hist. of Jacob and Esau V iv: I will take no daies, but while the matter is hotte, Not one of them shall scape, but they shall to the potte.
[UK]Nashe Have With You to Saffron-Walden in Works III (1883–4) 181: Which information piping hot in the midst of this line was but brought to me.
[UK]Middleton & Rowley The Changeling I i: He’s hot preparing for this day of triumph. Thou must be a bride within this sevennight.
[UK] ‘Thursday’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) I 184: And One makes nine Speeches while the Business was hot.
[UK]Whores Rhetorick 76: Will any Man be fond of a Ladies company, coming hot from the embraces of a Stranger?
[UK]Dryden Don Sebastian 77: Prithee what was the meaning of that violent hot Hug?
[Ire] ‘Rodney’s Glory’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 5: Thousands of their men were slain / During this hot engagement.
[UK]‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘King Tims the First’ Fancy 29: You then love’ Little, Mrs. Tims; and read / His ‘hot-press’d lyrics’ on cold nights a-bed.
[US] ‘Mistakes of a Day’s Gunning’ Bob Smith’s Clown Song and Joke Bk 18: I had it piping hot from a cockney’s memorandum.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 263: We made the pace pretty hot for the first twenty miles or so.
[US]Ade Artie 29: They had to make a hot touch [...] so as to get the price of a couple o’ sinkers.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 2 June 3/4: [S]ome of the coryphees [...] kicked up what is professionally known as a ‘rough house.’ It became so hot that several policemen were called.
[UK]Sporting Times 1 Apr. 1/2: They say he’s gone to Africa—the climate there’s so good, / But it’s nothing near so hot as ’twas at home.
[UK]A. Wright diary 11 May Muddy France (1988) 10: German machine gun fire very hot.
[UK]Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 19: I didn’t wait to hear any more. Things were getting too hot.
[US]M. Levin Reporter 7: Taxis are only for special occasions [...] when you’re on a hot story.
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 97: The place about the pill box was becoming too hot [...] the machine gunners on the ridge had commenced to rake it.
[UK]J. Curtis They Drive by Night 22: As soon as thing start getting a bit hot I take a walk.
[US]B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 23: This deal what the boss wants to see you about. It must be very hot.
[US]E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 5: Gil Kurke told him he’d be in front of Paul’s house [...] with a hot item that wouldn’t keep.
[UK]‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Red Sea Sharks 33: This is going to be hot! ... Everybody down!
[US](con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 15: A too classic hot landing with the heat coming from the trees [...] sweeping machine-gun fire that sent men head down into swampy water.
[US](con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 22: Then we would get word that we were going to the L.Z. that was really hot.
[US]T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 39: Dang Singh liked to question a prisoner and extract ‘hot’ information before Intelligence had their run at him.
[US]G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 78: I think this is hot, something that he should know about.
[US]W.D. Myers Sunrise Over Fallujah 254: The flight to Al Amarah took nearly two and a half hours. Coles said the pilots must have been flying around hot zones.

(b) in constant use; busy, hectic.

[UK] Jonson Bartholomew Fair I i: ’Twas a hot night with some of us last night, John [...] We were all a little stained last night, sprinkled with a cup or two.
[UK]Bartholomew Faire in C. Hindley Old Bk Collector’s Misc. 6: These unconscionable exactions [...] made that angle of the Fair too hot for my company.
[UK]Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly III 88: Agatha, who was in my confidence, had a hot time of it over the faithlessness of shallow hearts.
[US]Harper’s Mag. Oct. 679/2: The New York and Washington wire is kept ‘hot’ for eight hours every night [DA].
[US]Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 22: There were no silly trips to Jersey to inspect ‘the scene of the crime,’ no long interviews with reporters about suggested clues, and no ‘keeping the wires hot’.
[Ire]Joyce Ulysses 608: As those were particularly hot times in the general hullaballoo Bloom sustained a minor injury from a nasty prod of some chap’s elbow in the crowd.
[US]A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 4: Some of the hottest drug-dealing blocks in the notorious 46th Precinct.

(c) current, of the moment, up-to-date.

[[UK]C. Morris ‘Billy Pitt and the Farmer’ Collection of Songs (1788) 18: I’ll tell a merry story / About a British farmer [...] I had it piping hot / From Ebenezer Barber].
[Aus]H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 74: We’re [i.e. a newspaper] hot, and already have scored some points and bagged a few dimes.
[US]Ade Forty Modern Fables 186: Her hot Speciality was to Calcimine the Has-Beens and feed them a little Ginger.
[US]H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 36: Did you ever hear tell of New York’s hottest place.
[US]Ade Hand-made Fables 201: Christine went forth for guaranteed Eggs and came back with a hot slice of News.
[US]J. Dixon Free To Love 179: ‘The story’s so hot, it sizzles!’ the editor rejoiced.
[Aus](con. WWI) L. Mann Flesh in Armour 36: [H]ot accounts from Fleet Street of slight activity in the Ypres salient.
[US]A. Lomax Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 152: We were the hottest thing in Chicago those days.
[US]J. Thompson Criminal (1993) 47: I’ve got something hot for you.
[US]M. Spillane Return of the Hood 30: Sit down and talk. You’re the hottest item in town.
[UK]Sun. Times Mag. 7 Oct. 55: When a ‘hot’ news story breaks, you’ll hear it on London Broadcasting before it even leaves the editor’s desk at the BBC.
[US]C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 55: Atlantic also had some other hot artists.
[UK]K. Sampson Powder 236: He just drifts in from nowhere, no foreplay, just as you’re about to get hot. Not before, not after.
[US]W. Shaw Westsiders 93: Rah was jealous about the prospect of Josiah being offered a salaried job at one of the hottest record companies in hip-hop.

(d) (US) fast or powerful.

[UK]Sportsman 11 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [T]here was heavy fall on the floor. Miss Faith had received ‘hot right-hander’ from Miss Works.
[UK]Whitecross and the Bench 225: ‘I expect Mr. Whiffen is rather frightened at the high stakes some of these fast fellows play for’ [...] ‘Well, it is too hot for me,’ replied Fred.
[Aus]‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Saltbush Bill’s Second Fight’ Rio Grande’s Last Race (1904) 82: ‘I’ll take the job,’ said the fighting man; ‘and hot as this cove appears, / He’ll stand no chance with a bloke like me.’.
[US]Alliance Herald (NE) 17 Sept. 4/3: The hot liner from Mr Bryan’s bat in the direction of Joseph G. Cannon has already been scored ar republican head-quarters.
[UK]Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 176: It was obvious to him by this time that he had run into something pretty hot.
[US]Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ Novels and Stories (1995) 1002: Last night when I left you, you was beating up your gums and broadcasting about how hot you was.
[Aus]L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 72: He’ll pick some joker who’s too hot for him and get done over like.
[US]J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 41: I’m one helluva hot spudpeeler. I’m the best spudpeeler in Schofield Barricks.
[US]E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 8: ‘I wanted a Chrysler, but my old man thought it too hot.’ He snickered. ‘Wait till I get this beast geared up to it and better.’.

3. unpleasant; usu. in phr. make it hot (for).

[UK]H. Porter Two Angry Women of Abington A4: mis bar.: Right by the Lord, a plague vpon the bones. m. gou.: And a hot mischiefe on the curser too.
in M.M. Verney Memoirs (1989) II 260: Harry and I have had a hotter dispute then ever we had; concerning your not answering his letter; he fell into very high Language.
[UK] ‘Panche’ in Furnivall & Hales Bishop Percy’s Folio Manuscript of Loose and Humorous Songs (1868) 62: When that he heard his wiffe say soe, / his anger waxed hotte.
[UK]Foote Commissary in Works (1799) II 21: This piece of intelligence will make a hot house.
[UK]D. Humphreys Yankey in England 24: I’ve some influence, I’ll make Lisbon too hot for you.
[UK] ‘King Harry & His Six Wives’ Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 31: My subject I swear is a king, [...] His temper was terrible hot.
[UK]T.H. Gladstone Englishman in Kansas 43: I reckon we’ll make the place hot enough for them soon, that’s a fact.
[UK]T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 128: I’ll give him, perhaps, two more [terms] to make the place too hot to hold him.
[UK]J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 244: I’ll do summut wot’ll make it hot for me next time, no fear.
[Ind]‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 94: Cornet O’Leary found / It uncommonly hot in the troop.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 4/4: Constable Stove has made it hot for Jones and Co. Eight years.
[UK] ‘’Arry’s Spring Thoughts’ Punch 17 Apr. 185: We’re a-droppin’ on jolly ’ot times, CHARLIE.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 11 Feb. 1/2: If he is extradited to England he will make it very hot for some London financial big bugs.
[Aus]J. Furphy Such is Life 214: I’ll make it hot for you, Mrs. Bodyzart, so I will.
[US]J. Lait ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 242: It got pretty hot aroun’ ’lection an’ it looks like our alderman is gonna get took good.
[UK]Marvel 5 June 16: I give you warning [...] I mean to make things hot for you.
[UK]J.B. Booth Sporting Times 26: E ’ave dinners, ’e ’ave magnum [...] ’e no pay. Missa Judge Esquire, you make it ’ot for im.
Fairmount News (IN) 24 Oct. 4/1: From our efforts to make it hot for the dust and germs, we [...] make it hot for our men folks.
[UK]C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 74: These indignant folk might make things hot for us.
[UK]B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 55: The Commissioner of Police was going mad. They had never had it as hot as this.
[US](con. 1940s) Malcolm X Autobiog. (1968) 189: Her parents made it so hot that Sammy had come to Harlem.
News-Press (Fort Myers, FL) 24 Dec. 29/1: The Cleveland Browns can [...] make things hot for the [Miami] Dolphins.
Dly Jrnl (Vineland, NJ) 18 Nov. 1/1: The newly named chief of federal drug enforcement [...] says he’s going to ‘try to make it hot’ for narcotics dealers.
[US]G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 25: I know he would have talked when it got hot.

4. (US police) ripe to be investigated because rife with crime.

[US]Woods & Soderburg I Got a Monster 62: A couple of nights a week, we would just go out to hot areas [...] known for drug activity and violence is pretty high [...] kind of go hunting, see what we can get into’.

5. with ref. to the emotions.

(a) furious, extremely angry.

[UK]‘I.T.’ Grim The Collier of Croydon III i: And gentle Captain, be not offended, I was too hot at first, but now repent it.
[UK]G. Harvey Trimming of Thomas Nashe E: I will stirre thee vp and make thee seething hot.
[UK]Jonson Alchemist IV iii: This is a travelled punk-master, and does know / All the delays: a notable hot rascal, / And looks, already, rampant.
[UK]J. Howell Familiar Letters (1737) I 276: My Vintner and Shoe-maker fell into a hot dispute about Bishops.
[UK]Cibber Love Makes a Man V i: Don’t be too hot, Brother.
[UK]Bragge [Fake] Female Tatler (1992) 44 127: Good Mr Doolittle, why so hot?
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 78: The Welshman grows hot, and the Irishman huffs.
[UK]C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 56: Hereupon they fell to hot Words.
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Ode Upon Ode’ Works (1794) I 418: What could he do? – oppose with ire so hot?
[US]H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt I Vol. IV Bk I 287: I make no doubt that some hot, or at least warm words have passed between them.
[UK] ‘Bundle of Proverbs’ Jovial Songster 65: A thousand hot words will not sour good beer.
[UK]M. Edgeworth Love and Law III i: From a child up I never could stand to be advised for my good. See, I’d get hot and hotter, please your honour, till I’d bounce!
[UK]Lytton Paul Clifford I 114: I was the son of Lawyer Pepper, a shrewd old dog, but as hot as Calcutta [...] for all of us are a little inclined to be hot in the mouth.
[US]‘Major Jones’ Sketches of Travel 30: They got into one of the hottest kind of argyments.
[UK]‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) II 192: They said very unpleasant things to me; and, altogether, I can assure you that it has made me very hot.
[UK]C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 133: They got so vehement and hot in their language that it led to several breaches of the peace.
[US](con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 50: The rest of his speech was all the hottest kind of language—mostly hove at the nigger and the govment.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 126: ‘We have nothing to do with your fancies, sir,’ says our man, mighty hot.
[US]Ade Artie (1963) 91: I could see she was hot about something. I asked her if anything had gone wrong.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 10 Nov. 83: He kept back the hot words he was so often tempted to speak.
[UK]J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 8: I funked the hiding Bill could give me. / And that thought made me mad and hot.
[US]Day Book (Chicago) 8 Apr. 5/2: Somebody called his daughter plain and he was hotter than a redheaded hornet.
[US]Z.N. Hurston Spunk (1995) 953: I’m skeered of dat man when he gits hot.
[US]D. Runyon ‘The Brakeman’s Daughter’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 509: He is so hot you can fry an egg on any part of him.
[US]Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 54: If my sister had made a table-pad out of my best record [...] she couldn’t have made me hotter than she did that day.
[US]B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 199: Something’s gone wrong. He’s hotter than a pistol.
[US]N. Heard Howard Street 65: Sy flew hot: ‘You little black mothafucka!’.
[US]D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 154: Gee Gee was a touch hot.
[US]E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 124: I be laughin’ at him [...] dat’s what makes ’im hot.
[US]E. Bunker Mr Blue 368: He looked kinda hot ’cause he had to wait.
[US]J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 77: Watching the crowd get [...] plenty more hot with every comic and singer and dog act that went on taking up valuable stage time.
D.A. Summers ‘Nothing to Lose’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] It made Russell hot when he heard what Luanne said about Rico.

(b) zealous, eager, enthusiastic.

[UK]Lyly Euphues (1916) 80: I hope that such hot love cannot be so soon cold.
[UK]Shakespeare Tempest IV i: They were red-hot with drinking; So full of valour that they smote the air For breathing in their faces; beat the ground For kissing of their feet.
[UK]W. Haughton English-Men For My Money C4: If you be so hot upon your dinner, Your best way is to haste Pisaro on.
[UK]J. Howell Familiar Letters (1737) I 3 Mar. 113: This business is now in hot agitation.
[UK]Marlowe Lascivious Queen I iv: You are too rash, you are too hot.
[UK]Answer to the Fifteen Comforts of Whoring 2: Youth is so hot / To get about the Maiden’s Honey-pot.
[UK]N. Ward Vulgus Britannicus II 22: When thus the bold infernal Swarm, / Were boiling-hot for any Harm.
[UK]C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 101: Our Love grew so hot, that the Customers [...] took Notice of it.
[UK]Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 13: Proud as a German count, and as hot and hasty as a Welsh mountaineer.
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Farewell Odes’ Works (1794) I 183: Ev’n Saints of poor Old England’s breeding [...] Our hot Reformers did as roughly handle.
[UK]W. Godwin Caleb Williams (1966) 122: Squire Tyrrel is very headstrong, and you, your honour, might be a little hottish, or so.
[UK]Friar and Boy 35: Quoth Jack, methinks you are too hot.
[UK] ‘Handy Andy’ Bentley’s Misc. Feb. 173: My dear squire, don’t be so hot: he has not shown himself yet.
[UK]R. Barham ‘The London University’ Ingoldsby Legends (1847 77: Fat F--. with his coat of blue, / Who speeches makes so hot in town, / In rhetoric, spells his lectures through, / And sounds the V for W.
[UK]F. Smedley Harry Coverdale’s Courtship 351: Why had Alice written off in such hot haste to this young man?
[UK](con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 388/1: He had always hidden safely there during the hottest search.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 11 July 22/3: Sir, – Still hot on the track. The footprints appear fresher. Have every hope of soon running the monster down.
[US]S. Crane in N.Y. Press 9 Dec. in Stallman (1966) 117: He was so hot talkin’ about this duel business.
[Aus]Coburg Leader (Vic.) 17 Nov. 2/7: The umpires in the Pots v. Hurst match were as warm as one of Cornwell’s kilns when on full fire. This is hot, boys, very hot.
[UK]Boy’s Own Paper 22 Dec. 190: They were as hot to fight as he to find them.
[UK]Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 55: Psmith’s work was about the hottest proposition he had ever struck.
[US]Tensas Gaz. (St Joseph, LA) 11 Aug. 8/2: He was so hot to have us butt in here and hand your heart a flutter.
[UK]T.W.H. Crosland ‘Let Us Forget’ Last Poems 10: We sought no honours and no balm, / On O.B.E.s we were not hot.
[UK]P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 41: Most dames woulda been hot to know what I wanted to talk to ’em about.
[US]J. Evans Halo in Blood (1988) 27: If she’s hot to get married I don’t see what can be done to prevent it.
[US]J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 134: That’s why she was so hot to go.
[US]G.L. Coon Meanwhile, Back at the Front (1962) 271: I was a hot-to-go marine in the Big War.
[US]T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 172: Wow [...] she’s really hot today. Two beautiful scenes. Beautiful.
[US](con. 1964–73) W. Terry Bloods (1985) 18: I joined the Army [...] My father was not too hot about it.
[Scot]I. Welsh Filth 47: The chink burd goes aw hot n focussed and eagerly writes it down.
[US]D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 3: Suazo looks kind of bug-eyed, but the Honduran usually runs a little hot.

(c) of people, reckless, boisterous.

[Ire]Tom and Jerry; Musical Extravaganza II v: (Jerry [...] comes over to the table where Logic, and as if unconscious of what he is doing, drinks two or three glasses of wine, and then, putting on Logic’s hat, walks about in an uneasy manner.) logic: (While Jerry is drinking the wine.) Hot work Jerry, hot work.
[UK]J. Payn Notes from ‘News’ 48: We must, says this two-wheeled sage, ‘not be too hot upon the bicycle at first’.
[US]F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 32: ‘[D]on’t yer know me? I’m Willie Wilkins, an’ y’ll find me a hotter sport den any o’ yez’.
[UK]Sporting Times 7 Jan. 1/5: He’s hot—extra. He’ll borrow every ruddy steever you ever had, and he’s no more ‘personal security’ than a last year’s bird’s-nest.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘The Song of the Back to Front’ in Roderick (1967–9 ) II 240: And the calm, mild men with the fiend’s own wives are wild to the world, and hot.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 532: Back in them there days [...] we sure was hot stuff.
[Aus]K. Tennant Battlers 178: Meebee I was a bit hot with you, Dogger.
[US]D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 185: I don’t usually get hot like this for anything other than a football game. But I am hot.
[UK]N. Cohn Yes We Have No 57: She felt hot, ready for anything.

(d) (also O.T.) lively, energetic.

[UK]Cibber Non-Juror I i: Here he comes piping hot to fetch me! Now we are all in a fine Pickle.
[UK]C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 44: The Rustics were in a hot Debate about the Price of Corn.
[UK]Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas I 43: The action had been very hot.
‘The Frolicsome Irishman’ Bower of Apollo 8: The smoke was so thick, and the battle so hot, / But I dare not fire for fear of being shot.
[US]Soulé, Gihon & Nisbet Annals of S.F. 170: The ball was kept hot and rolling incessantly, all that night.
[US]J.F. Brobst letter in Brobst Well Mary, Civil War Letters 92: I expect they are having hot times up north now, the draft coming off and the election too, both at the same time.
[US]B. Hogan Life and Adventures of Ben Hogan 62: The third round was a hot mill, lasting from seven to eight minutes.
[US]Ade Artie (1963) 7: What’d a couple o’ hot knockabouts do to this push?
[UK]A. Morrison Tales of Mean Streets (1983) 87: The pace was too hot, and they were soon breathing like men about to sneeze, wearily pawing at each other.
[US]‘Hugh McHugh’ Get Next 57: Say, did you ever spar a few hot rounds with a real attack of grip?
[UK]Davidson et al. [perf. Harry Gragson] ‘Billy Brown’ 🎵 He’s a bit O.T. Oh ha-ha-ha-hee / Who’s that swaggering along the street? / Who’s that giving all the girls a treat?
[UK]Bastow & Leigh [perf. George Bastow] ‘Captain Ginjah O.T.’ 🎵 They all know Captain Ginjah / Jolly old pot, O.T. ’ot / Ninety-five in the shade what, what.
[US]R. Lardner ‘Horseshoes’ Coll. Short Stories (1941) 253: We go home to Chi and are havin’ a hot battle with Pittsburgh.
[US]W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 225: When a card game got hot and one of the players thought he was being gypped.
[US]Cab Calloway ‘That Man is Here Again’ 🎵 He plays the hot number, / Breaks up your slumber.
[UK]K. Amis letter 10 Feb. in Leader (2000) 42: Looking forward to seeing your Ugly mugg next Satuday therll be a Hot time in the old Town then.
[US]B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 228: I haven’t seen things so hot down here in thirty years.
[US]C. Himes Imabelle 60: A three-piece combo beat out hot rhythms.
[US]C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 61: [as 1957].
[US]C. Loken Come Monday Morning 109: He was going to get hot an’ do some good things for her.
[UK]V. Headley Yardie 82: They spun several hot records, sending the crowd wild.

(e) severe.

[UK]H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 255: Both the Highlander and the Irishman are too hot with the blacks.
[UK]J. Greenwood In Strange Company 10: ‘Sometimes you steal?’ ‘Oh! come, yer know you’re a-comin’ it a little too hot now.’.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Aug. 18/3: The Nepean Times devotes a par. to the fact that two brothers at Forbes, convicted of horse-stealing, were sentenced to 10 years each, and says this is too hot, considering that a bank clerk who steals a couple of thou. only gets a year or two.
[UK]Kipling ‘Stalky’ Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 16: The Head’s rather hot about gate-liftin’, and poachin’, an’ all that sort of thing.
[UK]S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 25: [of a judge] Blow me, Tom, ain’t ’e ’ot?
[UK] (ref. to 1914–18) F.D. Sharpe Sharpe of the Flying Squad 175: Before he was led into court, Johnny beckoned me and said: ‘Make it as hot as you can, Mr. Sharpe, I don’t want to go into the army’.

(f) annoying/unacceptable.

[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 7 Oct. 5/5: One explains, the other argues, / Talkin’ orful bleedin’ rot, / Of her tricks, deludin’ strangers, / Wich they calls extremely hot.
[Aus]Truth (Melbourne) 6 June 2/4: It’s a bit ’ot, for these ’ere lawyer blokes / [...] / A-usin’ words what ain’t the cheese, agin the Court’s set rule.
[Aus]J.S. Finney 9 Sept. diary 🌐 They would accept army troops of the Allies and British Colonials including Black Men, but on no account would they take in Australian troops. It’s about the hottest thing I’ve come across in France and has a right to be remedied.

(g) tense.

[US]Dos Passos Three Soldiers 246: Look here, Toby, didn’t our outfit see hotter work than any goddam engineers?
[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 95: Everything was very hot indeed.
[Aus]L. Glassop We Were the Rats 181: That was a pretty hot raid.

6. in Und. and related uses.

(a) dangerous, thus unsafe for criminal activity.

[UK]‘Bashe Libel’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 77: His lucke was good / To scape that scouring, by the Roode. / From thence he scapt, but wott you what? / The country after was to hott.
[UK]Nashe Martin-Marprelate Tractes in Works I (1883–4) 146: They are some yong Diuells, and that their purpose is to make some hot work with vs.
[UK]Shakespeare Henry V III ii: bard.: On, on, on, on, on! to the breach, to the breach! nym: Pray thee, corporal stay: the knocks are too hot.
[UK]Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe I i: I feare twill be hot staying for you in London then.
[UK]J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 59: Tom you was a true Prophet, when you said our Trade was too hot to hold, for we were too active to continue long without being taken.
[UK]C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 10: Cornwall now became too hot for him to stay any longer there.
[UK]G. Colman Jealous Wife III i: This pressing is hot work, tho’ it entitles us to no smart-money.
[UK]Foote Maid of Bath in Works (1799) II 205: The share he had in your Honour’s intrigue [...] made this city too hot for poor Ned.
[UK]‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Peter’s Pension’ Works (1794) II 162: He finds his situation rather hot.
[UK]W. Godwin Caleb Williams (1966) 100: The neighbourhood appeared more and more every day to be growing too hot for him to endure, and it became evident that he would ultimately be obliged to quit the country.
[UK]Sporting Mag. Oct. XVII 24/1: Should the town at last become too hot for you [...] you may take French leave – be off like a shot.
[UK]B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) II 167: A hue and cry was raised for two days: it was hot while it lasted.
[Scot](con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 190: Gott! the country was too hot for the trade already with that d—d frolic of Brown’s.
[UK]Lytton Paul Clifford III 113: We shall not meet within the three seas again, I think. England is as much too hot for me as Holland for you!
[US]D. Crockett Exploits and Adventures (1934) 170: Judge Lynch commenced his practice in that quarter, and made the place too hot for his comfort.
Tait’s Edinburgh Mag. viii 217: Finding all too hot to hold him [F&H].
[UK]Hull Packet 31 Jan. 7/5: After that [successful robbery], I found London was getting a little ‘hot,’ and went to Nottingham.
[US]T. Haliburton Sam Slick’s Wise Saws II 283: The Dutch boys will make Le Haive too hot for him.
[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 6/2: Leeds being rather too hot for us to stay any longer just then.
[US]Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 195: I suppose that you have wondered how I got away and where I am things was so hot I had no time to let you know before.
[Aus]Eve. News (Sydney) 15 May 7/5: I laid hands on all I could get. They ‘spotted’ me. [...] The place was getting too hot. They were going to lynch me; so I cleared out.
Liverpool Mail 5 Sept. 6/5: ’It’s getting hot as h—ll round here, I’ll have to cut or they’ll pin me’.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 122: The other people’s mostly a shady lot. Some run away from places that were too hot to hold ’em.
[UK]P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 82: I found my way back to Vestminster, got palled in with a lot more boys, done a bit of gonnafing or anything to get some posh, but it got too hot, all my pals got nicked.
[UK]Marvel 24 Nov. 494: If they find that this part of the country is getting too hot for them, they can bolt at once.
[Aus]‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘The Cast-iron Canvasser’ in Three Elephant Power 21: In fact, it was altogether too hot for the canvassers, and they came in [...] to tender their resignations.
[US]J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 181: It’s a tough racket now-a-days. The Shommuses have made the good spots too hot.
[US]E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 24: Things started getting hot and he rabbited for Mexico.
[US]S. Longstreet Decade 317: Don’t highball any hideout for this lug. He’s hot, this lamster.
[US]‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 29: ‘No more jackrolling [...] The park’s hotter than a firecracker. Someone knocked over a dick by mistake’.
[UK]F. Norman Fings I i: Fings are getting dead ’ot these days. I fink I’ll go straight or somefing.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 100: Get away from here. You’ll make my place hot just standin’ here.
[Aus]P. Pinney Restless Men 69: ‘Musgrove bloody Park!’ Specs growled. ‘Hot as a bodgie fiver! Every vag and winedot in Brisbane sacks out there.’.
[US]O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 236: The street is red hot . . . some rotten niggers raped that lil’ ol’ Evans girl.
[US]Ice-T ‘High Rollers’ 🎵 Most men men don’t understand it / Till they peep the huge bank that these girls have landed / And if things get hot, they will pull a gun!
[UK]V. Headley Yardie 25: T’ings got kinda hot fe me down dere.
[US]S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 55: Don’t you understand how hot these things are. Hot hot you are.
[US]S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 62: ‘They didn’t wanna buy the MAC-10s [...] their boss guy said they were too hot’.
Central Cee ‘Hate It or Luv It’ 🎵 The music ting just popped, just in time ’cause the spot got hot.
[Aus]A. Nette Orphan Road 206: ‘[T]hings were getting hot for me in Philly. I was skimming from the Mob’s heroin operations’.

(b) in weak use of sense 5a, in difficulties (other than criminal).

[UK]Beaumont & Fletcher Honest Man’s Fortune II ii: It seems you have been in terrible hot service, captain.
[US]D. Crockett Narrative of Life of D.C. (1934) 19: I hired myself to go with him, determining not to return home, as home and the school-house had both become too hot for me.
[UK]Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 158: One who was always pretty hot, and just then in no end of a pickle.
[US]T. Dreiser Sister Carrie 257: Damn her! [...] I’ll make it hot for her if she causes trouble.
[UK]Marvel 10 July 9: You’m in for a hot time ob it.
[UK](con. 1941) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 237: A stick of bombs came striding across from Bloomsbury towards St. Pancras. ‘Coming down as soon as this row lets up a bit. It’s pretty hot here tonight.’.
[NZ]N. Hilliard Maori Girl 243: He might get wild – fact, he’s bound to – and then he’ll make it hot for all of us.

(c) of people, known to or wanted by the police, suspect.

[US]Matsell Vocabulum.
N. Gould Straight Goer (1915) 25: ‘There’s a hot gang in the district, and [...] there’s been a lot of horse-stealing and cattle-lifting’.
[UK]E. Pugh Spoilers 66: Remember, Chick, ’ow they used to tumble out when the tiggies made a raid for a ’ot poge-hunter or snidesman.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 104: Hot.– [...] Wanted by the police for some crime but lately committed.
[US]D. Runyon ‘Madame La Gimp’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 251: Wild William Wilkins, who is a very hot man [...] wanted in several spots for different raps.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 321: You’re hotter than ever, Dealer.
[US]J. Steinbeck Sweet Thursday (1955) 42: Tell me, you hot? [...] Under raps I mean. Anybody got anything on you?
[UK](con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 39: He must have made a hobby of lulling himself to sleep by reciting hot car-numbers.
[US]D. Westlake Busy Body 130: I can’t wander all over town, Fred. Remember? I’m hot.
[US]D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 34: Word would be out...and they, along with the watches, would be hot as hell.
[US]Pileggi & Scorsese Goodfellas [film script] 117: He says he’s too hot.
[UK] in R. Graef Living Dangerously 33: If you think you’re too hot, you’ll get caught.
[US]G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 96: ‘We’ll meet at his place.’ ‘Ain’t we still hot up that way?’.
[US]Simon & Burns ‘More with Less’ Wire ser. 5 ep. 1 [TV script] ‘Po-po still up on you?’ ‘We hot all the time’.
[US]G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 46: I am seeing how inadvertently inmates qill make your name hot and not know it.
[US]S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 55: Don’t you understand how hot these things are. Hot hot you are.
[US](con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 230: We worked. We eyeball-hopped [...] No hot names scorched us.

(d) of goods, stolen.

Illus. Times 11 Jan. 12/2: ‘How much?’ the dodger whips one off the string and rapidly ejaculates, ‘Two bob; it’s the best of the lot but the hottest, so I wants to drop it,’ which means that in consideration of its being the last stolen [...] it shall be sold at the low price.
[UK]J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 41: Don’t all speak at once, but cut it up quick, good luck to yer – it’s hot.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 26/3: Nor she don’t arsk no questions if they’re ’ot. / (Pinched ’em? Of course! – ’ow else could they be got?).
[US]J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 262: The average thief is duck soup for the hockshop man [...] The hockshop man sees him and knows he has something ‘hot,’ or crooked.
[US]B. Cormack Racket Act I: He had a hot car.
[US](con. late 1920s) L. Hughes Little Ham Act I: Everything I got on is hot. Lemme try on that coat. (hot stuff man gives her the coat).
[US]R. Chandler ‘Pearls Are a Nuisance’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 115: For five grand I could buy me enough hot ice to cover Mae West’s hips.
[US]N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 36: He would buy anything from a bicycle to a radio, if it wasn’t too hot. And he always knew, somehow, what was hot and what had cooled off.
[Aus]Singleton Argus (NSW) 4/2: ‘Listen, let us go through and I’ll drop a spin your way; these things you found in my port are hot all right’ .
[US]N. Cassady letter in Charters (1993) 194: One night, we [...] just happened to drive by a lot where I parked a hot car.
[US]‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 36: Somebody unloaded a batch of hot dresses on us for three grains of morphine.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 230: Look in his closet and you’ll find a lot of hot stuff.
[Aus]J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 36: No wonder he steered me away from main highways and police stations. This bomb is red hot.
[US]D. Goines Dopefiend (1991) 85: We got that hot record player in the backseat.
[UK]F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 34: Diamonds is certainly a character who knows a lot about ‘ot tomfoolery.
[UK]J. Sullivan ‘The Long Legs of the Law’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] You mean they’re hot?
[US]G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 56: The only guy he had a real chance of making, far as I could see, was some fence in Millis that handled mostly hot washing machines.
[Aus]R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 106: He’s a wharfie I know [...] Got a couple of hot VCRs.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 51: Bay Area junkies coming to dump hot travelers checks.
[UK]Guardian G2 7 Jan. 18: Whistling like Sid James after stashing some hot diamonds.
[US]C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 14: What kinda dumb-ass keeps fifty hot volley-balls in his back seat?

(e) of money or documents, forged or counterfeit.

Daily Ardmoreite 6 Jan. 6/5: Hot Check Artist En Route Ardmore [DA].
Credit World May 19/2: There are enough [checks] of the ‘hot’ type to warrant caution [DA].
[US]Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 16: Burglars cannot operate without ‘fingermen’ who stake them out and fences who dispose of the loot–jewels, furs or hot money.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 116: Don’t deal with Flip — he’ll leave you with a pocket full of hot money.
[US]B. Jackson Thief’s Primer 80: I read a few years ago that in Dallas they lost $1,740,000 in hot checks in the first three months of the year.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 15: Busting hot checks, throwing good junk after bad.
[US]C. Hiaasen Lucky You 114: The shitkickers returned night after night with a hot credit card.

(f) (US Und.) of a house or place, occupied while being robbed.

[US]G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 409: Hot joint – A house or store to be robbed while occupied or while business is being conducted.

(g) (US Und.) marked for death.

[US]News (Frederick, MD) 6 Oct. 4/8: If a man is ‘hot’ the odds are two to one he’ll be shot before the week is out.

(h) (US prison) smuggled.

[US]Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
[US]‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 23: I wanted to talk over an incoming hot shipment with a pal in the laundry.

(i) of dice or other form of gambling equipment, crooked.

[US]I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 15: Being a caulker, second class, and manipulating a hot pair of dice.
[US]Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 127: Lumberjacks, flush with money, are sports, suckers for a broad or a hot deck of cards.

(j) of money, derived from a crime.

[US]R. Starnes Another Mug for the Bier 119: I am not going to take any hot money for participating in a swindle.

7. with ref. to the human body.

(a) suffering from venereal disease or pubic lice.

[UK]N. Field Woman is a Weathercock II i: A hot knight, by my faith; Do’t-well and Burn-it too.
[UK] ‘Panders, Come Away’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 34: Ales Bradshaw is fforgott, the Cittye that ingrost her; / but happy is his lott, that never did arrest her, / for she is hott.
[UK]R. Davenport A New Tricke to Cheat the Divell IV i: I am a Whore? yes, and a hot one too.
[UK]New Merry Letany 1: From a Whores quarters, that oft are beat up, / From quaffing in a hot French-mans cup [...] Libera nos.
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 30 20–27 Dec. 239: Bewailing much his hott Veneriall sinnes, / Cursing the time he ere knew Coney-skins.
[UK]Wandring Whore II 3: All such as are too hot in the Cop-piece, may have a right-cooling Snow-water at the New-house without the Postern by Moor-gate.
[UK]Rochester (attrib.) Sodom Prologue: Come for to ease the itching of her arse, / Damn’d pocky jades, whose cunts are hot as fire.
[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 323: To the Tavern we went, / A Curse on the Place; / For her Love was so hot, / It soon fir’d my A-.
Secret Hist. of Betty Ireland (9 edn) 27: His Worship [...] soon found he had met with a hotter Reception than he expected [and] was necessitated to go into the Powdering-Tub.
[UK]‘The Bilk’ in Randy Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 208: So though she paddled through the streets to ease the man’s desire, / She kept a place about her full as hot as any fire.
[UK] ‘The Farmer’s Sprig’ in Frisky Vocalist 38: A potter’s daughter came to him quite hot, / To have his said sprig planted in her pot, / But the heat was so great it made him dance a jig, / And he found in her pot he’d well burnt his sprig.
[US]Kool Moe Dee ‘Go See the Doctor’ 🎵 ’Cause she was hotter than an oven and I head to learn / [...] / But three days later, go see the doctor.

(b) (US) drunk; usu. in combs., e.g. hot as a red wagon, hotter than love in haying-time, hotter than a skunk.

[UK]Beaumont & Fletcher Coxcomb I v: I am monstrous hot with wine.
[UK]Fletcher Night-Walker I i: I am hot with wine.
[UK]S. Marmion Soddered Citizen I i: Hee’s as hott With sacke, as seething Aqua vitae.
[Ire]Head Nugae Venales 258: I was in Holbourn, where I saw two high hot Huffing Hectors (about three-quarters Drunk).
[UK]C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 193: I look’s sharp for a Prize; – Such a Day took one, with a great deal of Liquor on board; so kept the Company hot, damn’d hot, then all Things went well again.
[UK]Sporting Mag. Jan. XVII 170/1: Hot with the Tuscan grape.
[US]A. Greene Life and Adventures of Dr Dodimus Duckworth II 176: He was seldom downright drunk; but was often [...] hot as be hanged.
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 19 Mar. n.p.: They kept up [...] pouring spirits down, at every tavern [so they] were rather flabberdegasted, hot, how-came-you-so, cornered, three-sheets-in-the-wind, half-seas-over.
[Ire]W.H. Maxwell Rambling Recollections of a Soldier of Fortune 100: ‘Hot with the Tuscan grape’ I urged my passion with more than common ardour.
[US]Burlington Sentinel in Hall (1856) 461: We give a list of a few of the various words and phrases which have been in use, at one time or another, to signify some stage of inebriation: [...] hot.
[US]G.A. England ‘Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire’ in DN IV:ii 74: hot, adj. Drunk. [....] hotter’n a skunk, hotter’n love in hayin’-time, adj. phr. Extremely intoxicated. [Ibid.] 78: red wagon, hot’s a, adj. phr. Very drunk.
[US](con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 331: He was too hot with whisky to endure his own consciousness.
[US]J. Sayles Union Dues (1978) 265: It touches everybody, the booze [...] It’s a curse. My own father, had a hot condition most of his later years, he couldn’t stay away from it.

(c) (US drugs) of an injection or drug, likely to cause death.

[US]D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 122/1: hot shot. Cyanide or other fast-working poison concealed in dope to do away with a dangerous or troublesome addict.
[US]C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 202: Maybe one of ’em [i.e. an addict] slipped that hot pill in Hodden’s fix.

(d) healthy; usu. as a negative, e.g. ‘not feeling too hot’.

[US]W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 290: The stir croaker says I’m not in such hot shape.
[US]A. Kober Parm Me 33: I asts her would she like to go home on account she’s not feeling so hot.
[UK]C. Lee diary 14 May in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 216: He said not to bother. He wasn’t feeling too hot .
[US]C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 176: She doesn’t look so hot.
[US](con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 220: ‘You don’t look all that hot yourself, if you don’t mind me saying’.

(e) (US) of a part of a body, an organ, seriously physically infected.

[US]Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl. (2nd edn).
[US]S. Shem House of God 200: A hot [appendix], ready to pop.

(f) registering a positive urine test for drugs.

[US]J.A. Juarez Brotherhood of Corruption 245: ‘Just a random test, Juan,’ he said. I was freaked out because I knew my piss was hot.
[US]D. Winslow The Force [ebook] ‘What are you, high?’ [...] Just a half-dozen go-pills and a couple of lines of blow. ‘Test me. I piss hot, you can add it to the charges’.

8. in senses of excellence or skill.

(a) (US) first-rate.

[UK]Dick of Devonshire in Bullen II (1883) I iii: Take heed you be not sent to heaven with a powder: a company of hot shotts* are abroad, I can tell you. (*skimishers or sharpshooters).
[UK]A. Smith Adventures of Mr Ledbury III 194: Gentleman was pronounced by his ‘grinder’ sufficiently crammed to present himself for examination at Apothecaries’ Hall, whilst his knowledge was piping hot.
[US]S. Crane Red Badge of Courage (1964) 112: ‘Hot work! Hot work!’ cried the lieutenant deleriously.
Yakima Herald (WA) 15 June 5/2: There is going to be a hot time in Tacoma July 4.
[US]St Paul Globe (MN) 31 Dec. 11/6: We were pretty hot things in society.
[US]I. Shulman Cry Tough! 33: We sure were a hot bunch of guys.
[US]L. Feather Book of Jazz 93: Jimmy Dorsey was considered one of the ‘hottest’ alto men.
[US]E. De Roo Big Rumble 64: All because of your wantin’ to be a coolie. Ain’t that hot!
[US]Rolling Stone 22 Sept. 28: The hottest nightspot in Opelousas, Louisiana.
[US]C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 95: We knew the band was hot, we knew we were good.
[UK]Indep. Mag. 19 June 31: Their [...] company is producing hot projects like, well, hot cakes.
[UK]Guardian Weekend 23 Oct. 93: ‘Hot’ The Paris Hilton term of approbation. Much more fun that boring old ‘cool’.

(b) very adept, skilful.

[US]G.W. Harris High Times 52: I am a hot hand at the location of capital letters and punctuation.
[Aus]‘G.G.’ Sporting Sketches in Sportsman (Melbourne) (18/10/1898) 5/8: ‘Oh! yes: very ’ot indeed is Pinky’.
T.B. Reed Master of Shell 11: This fellow Railsford's put me up to a thing or two about mugging. He was a hot man at Cambridge.
[UK]P. Cheyney Dames Don’t Care (1960) 12: I reckon that was not a very hot thing to say to you.
[UK]G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead (1955) 17: Spam [...] was the best bomb-aimer there is, but he was not too hot at map-reading.
[Ire]J. Phelan Tramp at Anchor 163: It got round that I was ‘very hot’ as an iron-worker.
[US]J. Berryman 77 Dream Songs 30: Collating bones: I would have liked to do. / Henry would have been hot at that.
[UK]J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 37: No problem nicking out the car park, cassettes and women’s bags they don’t give a shit [...] In the shop though their dosh they’re hot.
[US]W. Shaw Westsiders 244: My shit is going to be hot.

(c) of a sportsman, playing well, on top form; also used fig. of any contestant or performer, or in business etc.

[UK]Marvel XV:380 Feb. 16: The challenger [...] eyed Mike very fiercely. ‘Golly don’t he look hot!’ ejaculated Sam Shuffles.
[US]‘O. Henry’ ‘Past One at Rooney’s’ in Strictly Business (1915) 264: My governor is one of the hottest cross-buns of the Wall Street push.
[US]H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 339: Then I happen to think about this hot tip I got.
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 204: The dice get hot for a guy like this maybe once in his whole life. [Ibid.] 287: You’re hot tonight, there, Hoppe.
[US]D. Runyon ‘Pick the Winner’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 311: A hot horse being a horse that is all readied up to win a race.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 8: The super himself gave them hot tips every day.
[US]B. Spicer Blues for the Prince (1989) 137: I hear she is hot with the warbling and maybe I can use her.
[US]L. Bruce How to Talk Dirty 32: Within a few months I became ‘hot’ — I was making $450 a week and working everything ‘good’.
[US]G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 79: Anything hot as Blue’s due to lose.
[US](con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 132: Khe Sanh is now the hottest show in Nam.
[US]E. Bunker Mr Blue 130: I was hot and the cards were running my way.
[UK]Indep. Rev. 17 Feb. 1: For a while, Todmorden in Lancashire was the hot favourite.

9. indicative of something positive.

(a) (orig. US) highly amusing, esp. if ironic, ludicrous; thus a hot one.

[US] in G.W. Harris High Times 45: He says Knoxville is 200 miles from each of the places above named. Now that’s hot!
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 17 July 4/2: I heard he was Knighted, but saint — that’s too hot!
[Aus]‘Price Warung’ Tales of the Early Days 133: ‘Phew,’ exclaimed the D.A.C.G. ‘That’s hot, Wright. Is he going to make a fuss about it?’.
[US]‘O. Henry’ ‘The Fifth Wheel’ Strictly Business (1915) 62: Say, doc, [...] that’s a hot bird you keep on tap.
[US]J. Lait Broadway Melody 4: He’s a hot song-plugger, Eddie is—tossing off that push-over tune on them hoofin’ hams.
[US]J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 62: [I] told her I was going to South America with my grandmother. Which was really a hot one, because my grandmother hardly ever goes out of the house.
[Ire](con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 237: Begod, and that’s a hot one.
[US]B. Moyers Listening to America 26: ‘Hot dang,’ someone says, ‘I’m still on the payroll.’.

(b) attractive, pleasurable, fashionable; a general term of approval.

Josh Billings 173: I dreamed a good-sized, hot dream.
[US]L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 46: Redhot, excellent, perfect, magnificent. Sometimes abbreviated to hot, and usually used with some tinge of sarcasm.
[US]‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 99: Pretty hot line of goods, eh?
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 9 June 5/4: Ted F.’s white trousers and hot socks didn’t make the girls bite any more than his black ones .
[US]J. Lait ‘Ten Dollars’ Worth’ Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 238: I can give you two columns of hot obit. about myself.
[UK]T.W.H. Crosland ‘The White Feather Legion’ Last Poems 75: We’ve painted the night clubs vermilion, / We’re hot at the ‘Palace’ and ‘Pav’.
[US]J. Weidman What’s In It For Me? 333: What’ve you got that’s so hot?
[US]I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 33: What the hell makes you [...] think you’re so hot?
[US]J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 7: You don’t look so hot in those clothes.
[UK]F. Norman Guntz 15: My handwriting is not all that hot to say the least.
[US]L. Kramer Faggots 293: Is this not a hot outfit?
[US]D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 36: If gettin’ even is so hot [...] how come nobody ever stops there?
[US]C. Hiaasen Lucky You 10: Maybe this isn’t such a hot idea.
[US]T. Dorsey Stingray Shuffle 216: It’s probably not a hot idea to keep driving.

(c) very promising, potentially useful, thus commercially successful.

[US]A.H. Lewis ‘Crime That Failed’ Sandburrs 81: Bein’ nex’ to d’ bank is a hot tip.
[UK]E. Pugh City Of The World 237: My pitch is round about the Angel, and a very hot pitch it is, too, ’specially Sat’day nights, when the young toffs is doing their young ladies a treat.
[UK]P. Marks Plastic Age 112: I did n’t flunk out but my record is n’t so hot.
[UK]G. Kersh Night and the City 128: I tell you I’m on a hot proposition.
[UK]G. Fairlie Capt. Bulldog Drummond 46: Drummond, I hope, will lead us back to something hot.
[US]J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 63: The Man had hauled him in on something that could be very hot.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 90: I’m gonna catch a hot number or a wild daily double.
[US]G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 62: Machineguns’re hot items.
[UK]T. Blacker Fixx 166: Did I want to manage a hot new band.
[US]Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 23: Arguably the hottest record producer in America today. [Ibid.] 24: The tracks I’ve done for their next album are hot.
[UK]Indep. on Sun. Culture 9 Jan. 1: Sam got the unequivical ‘hot’ label.

(d) (US) lucky.

[US]A.J. Liebling ‘The Foamy Fields’ Just Enough Liebling (2004) 123: Momyer had shot down a Junkers 88 and Messerschmitt [...] He was hot.
[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 250: I got hot with the dice in the exercise yard.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Mar.

10. used of inanimate objects.

(a) in the context of gunfire etc., dangerous.

[UK]H. Chapin letter 10 Apr. in Soldier and Dramatist (1916) 130: Of course I saw and experienced nothing very hot in the way of either rifle or shell fire—just the trench warfare of everyday of the month.
[US]E. Shepard Doom Pussy 43: The DPs are hairy sorties [...] You’re almost guaranteed a hot time.
[US](con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 95: Fuck asking whether it is under fire or not. He expects it to be hot. You wouldn’t have called his ass on a priority if it wasn’t hot.

(b) (US) electrified.

[US]Sel. Gloss. Motion Pict. Techn. [Acad. Motion Pict., Hollywood] Hot, electrically charged, particularly when dangerous [OED].
[US]T. Runyon In For Life 154: They cut a large hole in the hot fence with insulated wire cutters.

(c) (US) radioactive.

[US]Pollard & Davidson Appl. Nucl. Physics vii. 139: Almost all the ‘hot’ sodium was in the form of NaOH [OED].
[Aus]‘Neville Shute’ On the Beach 194: He glanced at the carton of Lucky Strikes, but the captain was right, or course; they would be hot.

(d) of a bullet, loaded into the weapon’s chamber; of a gun, loaded.

in Harvey Air Force 20: I’d like to [...] meet him at 40,000 feet over the lake – hot guns.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 396: He grabbed the .45. He popped the hot round. He popped the clip.

(e) of a microphone, open.

[US]J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 221: Crawl up union towards him [...] Keep your mike hot.

In compounds

hot...

see also separate entries.

hot back (n.)

(US) a (hard) blow on the the back.

[US]F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 145: ‘I give him a couple o’ hot backs so’s he kin let loose o’ some o’ de water dat’s in him, an’ finally he gets so he kin talk to me’.
hot-backed (adj.)

of a woman, promiscuous, sexually voracious.

[UK]Tourneur Revenger’s Tragedy (1967) I ii: I’d hot-back’d devil to my father [...] Who but an eunuch would not sin his bed?
hot book (n.)

(US) a pornographic magazine, book.

[US]ATS 497: Hot book, a pornographic book.
[US]J. Gelber Connection 81: Cowboy was reading some kind of hot book.
[US]P. Roth Portnoy’s Complaint 206: Does she wrap them around your ass like in the hot books?
[US]W. Kotzwinkle Jack in the Box 52: He’s sellin’ hotbooks...Ever see one?
[US]L. Foster ‘What Makes a Hot Book Hot’ 🌐.
hot-bot (n.) (also Lady Hot-bot) [abbr. SE bottom]

a promiscuous, sexually voracious woman.

[US]Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 197: She is a Lady Hotbot, who likes her oats, greens or her grommet.
[US]L. Paros Erotic Tongue 179: She’s got a bad case of the hots ( 20thC.), a hot back, and a hot-bot (also Miss Hotbot or Lady Hotbot, c. 1920).
hot boy (n.)

(orig. US black) a fashionable young man, a ‘young blood’.

[US]C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 64: Come down to the Two Brothers saloon tonight and hear the Hot Boy from New York hit up the piano.
[WI]S. Selvon Ways of Sunlight 126: Mango had a friend in the East End, name Hotboy, who was a fellar from Trinidad.
[US]College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Hot Boy/Fire Boy (noun) A male who is very fine and cute.
[US]Jiggy ‘What the Deal?’ 🎵 Never be a hot boy.
[US]UGK ‘Heaven’ 🎵 I wonder if it’s a heaven for all the drug dealers / For all the hot boys, strippers and the thug niggaz.
hot chair (n.) (also hot armchair, ...stool, red hot chair)

(US) the electric chair.

[US]Arizona Republican (Phoenix, AZ) 26 June 4/2: There was nowhere a spark of vengeance There seldom is [...] on the scaffold, or in the ‘hot chair’.
Harrisburgh Teleg. (PA) 15 Apr. 1: [photo caption] [The] boy, condemned to die [...] is not nearly so much interested in what he calls the ‘red hot chair’ .
[US]J.T. Farrell ‘Just Boys’ in Short Stories (1937) 98: He’ll make a nice frying on the hot chair.
[UK]K. Mackenzie Living Rough 135: They kept him in the cooler for six months and then sizzles him, put him on the hot stool.
[UK]Sketch (London) 29 May 284/2: A negro in Louisiana, who survived 11,000 volts on the hot chair, said that it tickled a little, but didn't hurt.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]T. Thursday ‘Case of the Honest Thieves’ in Famous Detective Story 🌐 Many a lucky gent [...] skips the one-way passage in the hot armchair when his lawyer claims that he went nuts.
[US]Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 804: hot chair – The electric chair.
[US](ref. to 1947) Santa Fe New Mexican (NM) 4 Mar. 13/6: Louis young, another black, was executed on June 13, 1947 [...] Mrs W.B. Byrd wrote Gov. Thomas Mabry [that] she wanted to see the ‘dirty nigger in the hot chair’.
hot corner (n.) [orig. used of game shooting, where the shooter must fire fast to hit the maximum number of birds]

1. a difficult situation in which one finds oneself threatened, bullied or otherwise under attack.

[UK]Bradford Dly Teleg. 7 June 4/3: As cool and clear-headed in a hot corner as elsewhere.
[UK]W. Pett Ridge Mord Em’ly 186: Anybody ’tempt to dictate to me what I ought to do and what I ought not to do, and they’ll find themselves in a pretty ’ot corner, jolly quick.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Apr. 13/4: Yet the ostentatious exercise of his office of honorary beak once got him into a hot corner at the police station.
[UK]J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
[US]Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 17 Dec. 90/2: Dey’d got him in a hot corner.
[UK]A.G. Empey Over the Top 112: This post wasn’t exactly safe. It was a hot corner, shells plunking all around, and the bullets cutting leaves off the trees.
[US]Wash. Times (DC) 15 Mar. 22/8: Terry [...] will be assigned to the hot corner.

2. a corner that is a site for drug-selling.

[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 322: Put a tame corner under the microscope and you find dope and coke, fiends and dealers, stickup boys and burn artists [...] Put a hot corner under the scope and you find pretty much the same thing.
[US]G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 156: Rhonda Willis [...] had worked UC around that hot corner for several weeks.
hot-dish (adj.) (also hot-slop)

(US campus) attractive, fashionable.

[US]W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 20: hot-dish. Fine, striking. ‘Look at that new golf sweater. Isn’t it hot-dish!’ [...] hot-slop. Same as ‘hot-dish.’.
hot end (n.) [SE end, with the idea of a lollipop]

(US) problems.

[US]H. Blossom Checkers 40: I’ve had the hot end of it most of my life.
hot fat injection (n.) [injection n. (2)]

(Aus./US) sexual intercourse.

[US] ‘Adventures of a Fuller Brush Man: “Obliging Lady”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 46: I’m going to give you an injection of hot fat that will float your back teeth.
[US] ‘Tarzan in “Lost in the Jungles” IV’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 27: Tarzan proceeded to present Dolly with about the largest injection of hot fat she ever dreamed of.
[UK]Amatory Ink 🌐.
hot flat (n.)

(US black) an apartment used for some form of criminality.

[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 18 May 19: [She was] flashed off to a ‘hot’ flat where she was given the works.
hot fling (n.) [SE fling, a fit of self-indulgence. Note 16C fling, to wriggle the buttocks during sex]

a particularly active bout of sex, esp. with a new partner.

[US]R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
hot hay (n.) [hay n. (3b)]

(US drugs) marijuana.

[US]H.J. Anslinger testimony on HR 6385 27 Apr. 🌐 We seem to have adopted the Mexican terminology, and we call it marihuana, which means good feeling. In the underworld it is referred to by such colorful, colloquial names as reefer, muggles, Indian hay, hot hay, and weed.
hot head (n.)

(US prison) a prison homosexual.

[US]C. Shafer ‘Catheads [...] and Cho-Cho Sticks’ in Abernethy Bounty of Texas (1990) 207: hot head, n. – a homosexual.
hot-headed (adj.)

1. hungover.

[UK]T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia I i: You know we were boosy last night; I am a little hot-headed this morning.

2. drunk.

[UK]Otway Friendship in Fashion III i: If I but dip my Bill I am giddy. Now I am as hot-headed with my bare two Bottles, as a drunken Prentice on Holyday.
[UK] Gent.’s Mag. Dec. 559/2: To express the condition of an Honest Fellow [...] under the Effects of good Fellowship, it is said that he is [...] 20. Hot-headed.
[UK]H. Cowley Belle’s Stratagem III ii: Hot-headed fool!
hot hose (n.)

(US) a skilful, fast dancer or the dance itself.

[US]Eve. Sun (Baltimore, MD) 19 Dec. 21/4: Hoto hose: fast dancer, or dancing.
hot-house (n.)

1. a lock hospital for the treatment of veneral diseases.

[UK]Mercurius Democritus 31 May–7 June 38: An old piece of iniquity [...] (she having three times passed the Valley of terrour through the Lock of Kent-street and the Kings-land hot-house).

2. (US teen) a school.

[US]N. Pepper in Indianapolis Star 12 Dec. pt 4 22/6: Hothouse — School.
hot-lips (n.)

(US) a nickname applied to someone with a reputation for passionate kissing.

[US]DN V 270: Hot lips .
[US]C.L. Edholm ‘Gorilla Girl’ in Gun Molls Oct. 🌐 ‘Hot lips!’ Cora Corinta echoed the words with a cynical laugh. If the big sap only knew how cold her kiss was.
Bringing Up Baby filmscript in G. Mast (1988) 230: Do you mind if I say goodbye to hot-lips before I go? [note deleted from final film].
[US]Drake & Cayton Black Metropolis 719: ‘Hot Lips,’ twenty-five years of age and a native of St. Louis.
[US]‘Richard Hooker’ M*A*S*H 105: Stop these beasts...from addressing me as Hot-Lips.
hot load (n.)

1. (US) a powerful firearm cartridge.

Police Story [NBC-TV] And you’re the great white hunters with hollow-points and hot loads!...You were using hot loads, Armstrong [HDAS].
[US]R. Marcinko Rogue Warrior (1993) 4: 165 rounds of hollow-point Hydra-Shok, customised hot loads that could literally blow a man’s head off.

2. (US drugs) a narcotics overdose.

B. Hubbard Substantial Evidence 161: [W]e suspected that someone had injected her with a ‘hot load,’ or overdose.
hot mess (n.)

(US) an uncontrolled debacle.

H. Hershfield Abie the Agent 28 July [synd. cartoon strip] That shrimp hasn’t phoned me yet — I’m in a hot mess now!
[US]A. Kirzman Giuliani 347: It [...] reduced the event to a giant headache—’a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a trainwreck,’ in the words of CNN’s anchor Jake Tapper.
hot minute (n.) (also hot second, redhot...)

(US) a moment.

[US]Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 15 Nov. 13/8: Laughs and gestures soon betrayed their owners [i.e. of disguises]. Mr Clifton Blue, as a mysterious Chinese, remained so for a hot minute.
[US]R. Fisher Conjure-Man Dies 263: Can you give the law a hot minute?
Dorothy Kilgallen Voice of Broadway 23 Jan. [synd. col.] Broadway [...] where a fortune can become a farthing in a hot minute.
[US]N.Y. Age 27 June 7/2: Elise and Myrta Magloire [...] stopped off in Gotham for a hot minute.
[US]M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 52: We weren’t here a hot minute before they bagged us.
[US]O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 152: If you were to take your eyeballs and ears out of that idiot box for a hot minute.
[US]E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 60: Bringin’ a couple blankets wouldn’t take a hot minute.
[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself 296: ‘[S]he’ll take you back in a redhot minute’ .
[US](con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 4: It took a hot minute for him to find out.
[US]A. Mansbach ‘Crown Heist’ in Brooklyn Noir 128: I got to go out for a hot second.
[UK]N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 246: Such a div might grass you up in a hot second.
[US]G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 5: Negro ain’t been on the job a hot week and already complaining about what he ain’t going to do.
[UK]G. Krauze What They Was 65: The kitchen looks like no one’s lived there for a hot minute.
[US]J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 89: [T]hey done whatever I wanted for a hot minute.

In compounds

hot nuts (n.) [nuts n.2 (1)]

(US) usu. of a man, strong sexual desire.

[US] ‘Mme. Dora in “Strictly Business”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 75: Come on baby [...] I got hot from de nuts.
[US]Lil Johnson ‘Get ‘Em From the Peanut Man (Hot Nuts)’ 🎵 You tell me your nuts is mighty fine, / But I bet your nuts isn’t hot as mine.
[US]‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 90: [of women] A lot of these flappers who imagine they’ve got hot nuts are only suffering from prickly heat.
[UK] in Campbell & Campbell War Paint 143: [aircraft nose art] Hot Nuts.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US](con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 338: Man, her sister is prettier than she is, and she really got hot nuts for you.
[US] in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 344: Hot nuts. Hot nuts. Get ’em from the peanut man.
[US]T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 138: He’s got hot nuts for you, kid.
J.D. Horan New Vigilantes 270: He’s got hot nuts for her. He says he tried one night when he was drunk, but she and his wife got him out of the room.
L. Dabundo Changing Skins 57: A couple of years ago some guy in Philadelphia who is high up in the dope operations got hot nuts for this Sammy gal.
hot oil (n.)

(US black) a self-opinionated person, an important person.

[US]AS LV 202: I ain’t scared of nothing, not with no gun. Like I got a dozen people off me one day [...] I say [...] ‘Now what do you all youngsters think y’all hot oil, ain’t you?’.
hot pockaroo (n.) (also hot potcharooney)

(US gay) the buttocks.

[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 24: buttocks hot pockaroo [potcharooney] (mid ’60s, ?fr Anglicised puka, Haw = hole).
[US]R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.
hotpoint (v.) [the trickster points out something that is supposedly hot]

(Aus.) to fool, to take advantage by trickery; thus hotpointer, one who does this.

[Aus]Parramatta Jail Gloss. 7: hotpoint, put something over someone.
[Aus]Macquarie Dict. 858/2: hotpoint, v.t. Prison colloq. to cheat; deceive. Also point.–hotpointer.
hot-pot (n.)

1. (Aus.) in horseracing, the favourite.

[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 24/1: Kinglike was a disappointment, but [...] a slow beginner needs luck to get him into a front place for a Caulfield Cup. The case of Kinglike, the ‘hot pot,’ points the moral, and does not adorn the tale.
[UK] N&Q 23 Sept. 206/2: Hot pot, a horse which has been heavily backed.
[Aus]Baker Aus. Lang. 299: ‘Truth’ has always devoted special attention to sporting news and, as a consequence, has developed racing jargon considerably. [...] A favourite is a hot-pot.

2. (US black) a sexually promiscuous woman.

[US]T. Gordon Born to Be (1975) 100: A sugar-man came in and demanded money from his hot-pot to gamble with. [Ibid.] 235: I must keep on with the [...] writers, bull-dikers, hoboes, faggots, bankers, sweetbacks, hotpots and royalty.
hot property (n.) (also hot)

1. a success, a sensation.

[US]S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 260: I’m just their agent [...] They’re the biggest hots since the Clan.
[UK]F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 130: The coverage this case is getting in the linens is bound to turn it into a hot property.
[US]C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 97: The church realised that in him they had a very hot property indeed.
[UK]S. Bell If... 24 June in If Files (1997) 155: I gotta hot property for you – it’s a millennium musical...
[UK]Guardian G2 3 Feb. 12: The movie was an instant hit [...] and made Hicks a hot property in Hollywood.

2. an important person.

[Aus]P. Corris ‘Marriages Are Made in Heaven’ in Heroin Annie [e-book] This was his handle-with-care, this-side-up voice. I gathered Miss Hope was a hot property.
hot rail (n.)

(US prison) an instance where a group of inmates stand around a particular prisoner during visiting time so that he can have sex with his partner.

[US]Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Hot Rail: When a group of inmates stand guard around one particular inmate and his/her significant other on visiting time so the couple can have sexual relations.
hot session (n.)

(US) a good time (orig. sexual intercourse).

A. Rouverol Dance, Fools, Dance [film script] Oh boy, wasn’t that a hot session down there at the garage? [HDAS].
GayCork.com 🌐 Good looking 27y.o. wants slim 17–21 for hot session.
hot shop (n.)

1. (Aus./UK Und.) of a place, frequented by the underworld.

[Aus]Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 31 Dec. 2/8: When i entered the dance-room about a hundred of the roughes young men and women were tripping it [...] The faces of the dancers [...] bore the imprint of crime, vice, and cruelty. in the language of the day, I had fallen into ‘a very hot shop’.
[UK]D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 10 Aug. 12/4: ‘I know the crib [i.e. a ‘low’ public house] an’ a hot shop it is an’ no mistake’.

2. an unpleasant situation (caused by weapons fire).

[UK]B. Adams Nothing of Importance 84: We were ‘standing to’ after the mine, and for half an hour it was rather a ‘hot shop’ [...] I rather enjoyed it.
hot sock (n.)

(US) a good dancer.

[US]Judge (NY) 91 July-Dec. 31: Hot Sock - Good dancer.
hot stick (adj.)

of a man, sexually voracious.

[US](con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 386: A hustler like Paddy Jenks to bring her ice cream and Horse and hotstick cats who had to dip into her honey.
hot-tailed (adj.) (also hot-tail) [tail n. (2)]

1. infected with venereal disease.

[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 196: To blust’ring mars apollo calls, / Who with a Grecian hot-tail’d bitch / Was laid i’th’ bottom of a ditch.

2. of a woman, lecherous, lascivious.

[US](con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 464: These little hot-tail gals these days can’t keep they dress down.
[US](con. 1945) M. Angelou Gather Together In My Name 158: Old hot-tailed bitch. I know what she wants.
[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 575: [...] later C.20 version of hot-arsed.
hot take (n.)

an immediate, off-the-cuff opinion or reaction.

[US]J. Jackson Pineapple Street 66: C]ouples massages are just weird. I think they’re designed so that people who hate each other can do something romantic and not talk.’ ‘Hot take, okay’.
hot tongue (n.)

(US tramp) a sexually passionate woman.

[US] ‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 451: Hot tongue, A passionate woman.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 105: Hot Tongue.–A passionate woman ; another of the frequent and pointed allusions used by the unpolished and uneducated male.
hot topic (n.)

one who has a far-reaching reputation.

[US]L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 246: He had an awesome reputation as an O.G. He was, as he puts it, a ‘hot topic.’.
hot ’un (n.)

1. a gulp of liquor.

[UK]Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 57/2: Here he had to bolt a hot ’un from the measure before proceeding.

2. a painful, punishing blow or fight.

[UK]Derby Day 68: It’ll be a hot ’un, I expect when I let them in.
[UK]E.J. Milliken ‘Cad’s Calendar’ in Punch Almanack n.p.: Hot ’un in the eye for that old feller.
[UK]C. Rook Hooligan Nights 128: I [...] got in free hot ’uns on ’is ribs.
[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 575: mid-19C–20.

3. a debauchee, a degenerate.

[UK]Sporting Times 19 Apr. 3/2: Well your a ’ot ’un.
[UK]A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 164: It was a ‘lead,’ I give you my word. ’E was a ’ot un.
hot willie dog (adj.)

(US campus) smart, fashionable, showy.

[US]W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 20: hot Willie. Showy, fashionable. [...] hot Willie dog. Same as ‘hot Willie’.

In phrases

bit hot, a (adj.)

excessive, extreme.

[Aus]Sun. Times (Sydney) 31 May 5/8: Hello, Sir George! What prompted that foolish letter of yours in the dailies of Thursday? / Foolish! Come - that’s a bit hot; eh, what?
[UK]London Dly News 26 Aug. 9/4: Defendant would be fined £60 for one day, and £10 for succeeding days [...] White: ‘Oh, that’s a bit hot.
Mount Barker Courier (SA) 23 July 4/8: Graham was charged with having no lawful visible means of support and sentenced to one month’s imprisonment, which was suspended on condition that he left, the town within an hour. ‘That’s a bit hot,’ he remarked on leaving the court.
Dundee People’s Jrnl 21 Oct. 2/5: Golly, that’s a bit hot, ain’t it? Sort of shoving my head into the lion’s mouth.
[US]Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 2 Dec. 21/5: [from Sydney Bulletin] ‘Look, Digger, it’s a bit hot you writing love letters to my wife ’.
[UK]Gloucs. Echo 25 Sept. 3/2: ‘Why do you write such bosh of cheap apples?’ [...] ‘That’s a bit hot, but it is because [etc]’.
Windsor and Richmond Gaz. (NSW) 26 Oct. 6/3: He added that milking cows being driven along the road had actually been turned into the pound. ‘Oh, that’s a bit hot!’ exclaimed Ald. Cox; ‘I can’t believe that that happened’.
Richmond River Herald (NSW) 1 Sept. n.p.: Mr. McDonell complained of the launch rates charged to suppliers - 1/6 per reel on barbed wire, for instance. That was a bit hot, he thought. The lorries cart it for 9d and 1/-.
[UK]Nottingham Eve. Post 7 June 8/5: [headline] That’s a Bit Hot! — Man who gave the Fire Alarm Gets a Bill for £17 from the Brigade.
[Aus]Sun (Sydney) 21 July 3/4: This man was fined £50. Isn’t that a bit hot?
Dly Mirror 3 Aug. 4/5: ‘Croydon Advent Church. Subject Sunday July 29 “Is There a Hell?” A friendly welcomer awaits you.’ Say, that’s a bit hot!
[Aus]Townsville Dly Bull. (Qld) 27 Oct. 7/3: ‘I think he only feeds at flood time when a sheep or a calf comes washing down. His gob would swallow one of them easily.’‘Aw Sid, for crying out loud,’ I said, ‘that’s a bit hot, isn’t it?’.
come hot (v.)

1. (UK gambing) for a horse to attract a large volume of betting.

[UK]Sporting Gaz. (London) 1 Apr. 5/1: A horse is said ‘to come hot’ in the betting when he is suddenly backed for a large amount.

2. (US Und.) for a confidence man to go ahead with his plan, even when the victim knows that he is being swindled.

[US]D. Maurer Big Con 292: To come hot. To take a con-touch when the victim realizes he is swindled.
get hot on (v.)

(US) to get busy, to put in extra effort.

[US]J.L. Kuethe ‘Johns Hopkins Jargon’ in AS VII:5 332: get hot—become enthusiastic; ‘pep it up.’.
get the hot end of (v.)

(US) to be victimized, to be given a hard time.

‘Corporal Naught’ posting 24 Jan. on The Spice Islander Talk Shop at SpiceIsle.com 🌐 Women, as you pointed out, ALWAYS get the hot end of the stick (except on a few, VERY few occasions).
have a hot stomach (v.) [one is warm enough without the pawned garments and one’s stomach is hot (sense 4b above) for drink]

to pawn one’s clothes to get money for buying liquor; also ext. as have so hot a stomach as to burn the clothes off his back.

[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Hot Stomach. He has so hot a stomach that it burns all the Clothes off his Back, said of one who spends all his money on Drams.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: He has so hot a stomach, that he burns all the clothes off his back; said of one who pawns his clothes to purchase liquor.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
hot as...

see separate entry.

hot cakes on (adj.)

(Aus.) very keen on, obsessed with i.e. sexually.

[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 26 July 10/3: The Israelite [...] is still hot cakes on poor old N.
hot enough to fuck (adj.) [fuck v. (1)]

(US) very angry, furious.

[US]M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 241: The Doc was hot enough to fuck, but three of the ten were my action so he couldn’t say too much.
hot for (adj.) (also hot about, ...on, ...to, ...upon)

(orig. US) enthusiastic, keen on, esp. sexually.

[UK]T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 99: They are hot for high church, tho’ they never go within any.
[UK]S. Centlivre Beau’s Duel IV i: But is my Uncle so hot upon Matrimony, say you?
[US] in R.G. Reisner Graffiti (1971) 129: To Mr. D—b, on his being very hot upon Mrs. N.S.
[UK] ‘The Dyer of Roan’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 194: Quoth the Dyer, Most Reverend Father, / Since I find you’re so hot upon Wenching, / I have gather’d my Servants together / To give you a Taste of our Drenching.
[UK]Smollett (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas III 157: The minister laughed to see me so hot on the game.
[UK]J. Winston Drury Lane Jrnl (1974) 19 July 114: ‘Elliston’ last Saturday was hot upon the American scheme.
[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 72: Papinor knows that, and that’s the reason he’s so hot for it.
[UK]J. Payn Notes from ‘News’ 50: I have never been ‘hot upon bicycles’ since then.
[US]H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 100: The bold deed made a sensation [...] The mercantile house and the safe manufacturers were so hot for the thief that the detectives everywhere worked hard and ‘on the level’.
[US]Mencken letter 23 Dec. in Riggio Dreiser-Mencken Letters I (1986) 289: If it were in any sense a work of art, I’d be hot for it.
[US]S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 39: That very morning the two gangs, hot for revenge and without plan or preparation, invaded Gouverneur Street.
[UK]Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 105: Tuppy has never been very hot on the finer shades.
[US]W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 139: The Old man’s hot for you [...] He’s ready to back you for Mayor.
[US]N. Cassady letter in Charters (1993) 201: He was hot-as-hell for this chick.
[US]H. Gold Man Who Was Not With It (1965) 27: You’ll dream about the sugar yet. You’ll wake up hot for it.
[US]H. Selby Jr Last Exit to Brooklyn 28: He felt good having someone hot for him like that.
[US]B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 287: Found some babe who’s so hot for it she wants to take us both on!
[UK]P. Bailey An Eng. Madam 74: I’d forgotten what a sexy sod he was. He’d hardly smoked a cigarette before he was hot for it again.
[US]D. Gaines Teenage Wasteland 221: Heather is obviously hot for Randy.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 91: Who’s hot to buck the No-Horse Law?
hot in the box (adj.)

see under box n.1

hot it up (v.)

(S.Afr.) to go out on a spree.

[SA]L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 105: When he is ‘hotting it up’ with his ‘chommies’, or ‘chovers’, it means he is going on the spree with his pals.
hot-lot it (v.)

(US) to go at great speed.

[US]E. Grogan Ringolevio 207: Two police patrol cars came hot-lotting it up to the front of the house.
hot (up) (v.)

of events, to become more exciting, more dramatic.

[UK]Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 93: The atmosphere was [...] more or less hotted up.
[UK]C. MacInnes Mr Love and Justice (1964) 26: If the charge was hotted up to something worse, he might even send you to the Sessions.
[UK]The Clash ‘Garageland’ 🎵 Meanwhile things are hotting up in the West End all right.
[UK]A. Sayle Train to Hell 117: Things really start hotting up.
[UK]Guardian Rev. 20 May 4: Things were hotting up.

In phrases

make it hot for (v.) (also make it warm for, ...warm weather for)

to punish, to make life difficult for someone.

[US]‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 224: I reckon they’ll make it so warm for him that he will si [i.e. sigh] for his summer close.
[UK]Derby Day 47: We’ll make it hot for the Sinclair stable!
[US]Wichita City Eagle 14 June in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 51: The Texas men were on a spree, and, as a consequence, making it hot for pedestrians.
[UK]York Herald 3 Sept. 6/6: He was told he had better shut up or they would make it warm for him.
[UK]London Standard 27 Oct. 6/3: He was drunk then, and he said he would make it ‘hot’ for him.
[US]Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 18 Dec. 2/3: [headline] a social sensation / Caused by the Actions of a Young Lady Who Threatens to Make it Hot For Some of the Best Citizens.
[US](con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn (2001) 160: I was makin’ it mighty warm for the rummies, I tell you.
[UK]Gloucester Citizen 12 Aug. 4/4: Percy Marchant [...] was summoned by George Hawkins [...] for threatening to ‘make it it hot’ for him.
[UK]Liverpool Mercury 21 Apr. 5/5: Let them make it warm for the federation (cheers).
[UK]G.A. Sala London up to Date 91: It is one of Mr. Roe’s ‘good days,’ and [...] his Worship won’t make it very ‘hot’ for the night charges.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 3 Feb. 3/6: I’ll make it ’ot for her. I’ll stand ’er on ’er bloomin’ ’ed for tuppence.
[UK]E. Pugh Tony Drum 175: Supposing some o’ the girls see you. They’ll make it nice and hot for me.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 3/2: Long ago the Pharaohs bound you – / You were prisoners in Khem, / But the God you worshipped found you, / And he made it warm for them.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 10 Dec. 39/1: Ye’d better skip, me son, or he (hic) moight make ut warrum for yer billet. Oi’ll giv’ him awjience.
[Ire]Le Poer A Modern Legionary 35: [I]f a general quarrel took place, we were to remember our duty to the Legion and make it ‘warm weather’ for our opponents.
[US]W.M. Raine Bucky O’Connor (1910) 58: We made it so hot for them that they finally gave up getting us.
[UK]Wodehouse Psmith in the City (1993) 35: If Bickersdyke’s got his knife into us, he can make it jolly warm for us.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 11 July 13/3: ‘My word! I make it hot for you boys if you don’t stop.’.
[US]D. Lowrie My Life out of Prison 78: You’re getting yourself in dead wrong writing this junk for the papers, [...] we’ll make it mighty hot for you.
[US]M. Bodenheim Georgie May 22: He was liable to swill down an extra pint [...] get up his dander and make it hot for poor Emmy Lou.
[US]W. Coburn Law Rides the Range 43: Some of the white folks around here might make it hot fer him.
[US]H. Whittington Forgive Me, Killer (2000) 49: I don’t want you to make it hot for him.
not so hot (also not that hot, no too hot)

1. (orig. US) a general negative phr., not very good, unattractive, displeasing etc.

[[UK]E. Gayton Pleasant Notes II i 36: The Gyants and the Gods for the time, were not so hot at it as the Don and the Biscayan].
[[UK]E. Gayton Festivous Notes iii xi 66: [as cit. 1654].
[UK]P. Marks Plastic Age 197: We may not be so hot, but we ’re a damn sight better than these guys that work in offices and mills.
J.E. O’Donnell ‘Overcoat Bennie’ in Mss. from the Federal Writers’ Project 🌐 A thousand dollars was his top price, he told Jimmy. He could take it or leave it. The emeralds weren’t so hot, ‘Overcoat’ pointed out. Nor were the diamonds.
[US]F. Brown Dead Ringer 49: Mentally, I wasn’t so hot.
[US]H. Simmons Corner Boy 28: Scar ain’t so hot with women.
[UK]K. Amis letter 25 June in Leader (2000) 632: Not feeling so hot at the moment, having spent 18 of the last 24 hours in the company of John Davenport.
[US]L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 9: Count Five [...] weren’t so hot at it actually but ripped their whole routine off with such grungy spunk that I really dug ’em the most!
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 326: Why would he have termed the orders ‘not so hot’?
[Aus]C. Bowles G’DAY 99: Something that is not very good is not much chop, if it’s worse it’s not so hot.

2. less than fully capable or competent.

[UK]‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 104: I’ve heard it said that you’re not all that hot in the sack.
[UK]C. Dexter Remorseful Day (2000) 57: Grammar’s not so hot, I agree.
[UK]N. Barlay Crumple Zone 138: Georgio ain’t too hot when it comes to figurin’ things.
M. Pruett ‘Extras’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] Eddie's secretary comes out. She doesn't look so hot.
run hot (v.)

1. (Aus. prison) to do something illegally with a strong chance of being found out.

[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Running hot. 1. Doing something illegally and in danger of being found out.

2. (Aus.) to have a run of good luck, e.g. in gambling.

[Aus]Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Running hot. 2. Having a good run of luck, eg in gambling.
[US]R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied 342: ‘The Blues Bag,’ a series running hot at the club.
[Aus]P. Doyle (con. 1969-1973) Big Whatever 13: [of a cab-driver] I ran hot for a while on street hails, then it went quiet.

3. (W.I.) to be wanted, whether by fans or the police.

[WI]Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 44: Run hot 1. be in demand 2. wanted by the police: u. John a run hot/John is wanted.

4. (W.I.) to have prolonged sexual intercourse.

[WI]Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 44: Run hot [...] 3. [to have] prolonged intercourse.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

hot...

see also separate entries.

hot-and-dirty (n.)

(Aus.) coffee.

[Aus]W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Sept. 1/1: The hot-and-dirty dealt out in Goldfields ‘buffets’ is no incentive to temperance [and] the retailers of the smoky sludge keep a private pot for railway-nabobs.
hotbed (n.) [the beds are continually occupied] (US)

1. a bed in a cheap rooming-house that could be hired for 25 cents for eight hours.

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 2 Aug. 13: The old Lenox Avenue hotbeds where you knock a pad for a double-rough.
[US] ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
[US]‘Ed McBain’ Killer’s Wedge (1981) 87: Hot-bed is where people come to sleep in shifts, comprende?

2. (US black) in fig. use, a place that is ripe for excitement, violence, etc.

[US]Ted Yates This Is New York 29 Mar. [synd. col.] Harlem, as this tripe is being knocked out, is a hot bed [...] the fever for another race riot is at a high pitch .

3. (also hot-bed house) a cheap rooming-house.

[UK]C. Beaton Cecil Beaton’s N.Y. 167: Some of the grandest Fifth Avenue houses are only a few blocks away from the ‘Hot Bed Houses’ called Home by coloured workers who rent beds, let out in three eight-hour shifts throughout the twenty-four.

4. (also hot-bed hotel) a cheap brothel or hotel that rents out beds to prostitutes and their short-time clients.

[US]F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 69: They got the kids’ hotbeds down along the avenue for half the price.
[US]Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 16: They’re hot-bed hotels [...] They make believe they’re renting to you for the night, but they know they ain’t.
[US] in S. Harris Hellhole 97: If they do not want to pay for a hot-bed hotel, they will go into a hallway with her.
L. Stewart Panic on page One 216: [He] watched a couple of hookers come out of the hot-bed hotel on the corner .
hearing Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice 47: The Globe Hotel, the biggest hotbed hotel on the block which rents rooms by the hour.
B. Ritter Covenant House 131: The Cameo porno theater, which is right next to the Globe Hotel, the biggest hot-bed hotel on the block.
D. Porter Jacko 17: One of Gordy's assistants delivered the boys [...] o a ‘hot bed’ hotel on Santa Monica Boulevard, which was teeming with hookers.

5. the actual bed that is rented out for multiple paid sex acts in sense 3.

[US]J. Wambaugh New Centurions 189: ‘Apartments six, seven, and eight all have hot beds in them now [...] and we must‘ve seen these three whores take twelve or thirteen tricks in there one after another. [...] One hot bed can make you plenty [...] These three are really busy. They don‘t even bother changing sheets,.

6. (US black) a (rented) bed that is infested with biting insects.

[US]D. Spivey ‘If You Were Only White’ 47: When the team did have the resources to stay at an available hotel, it was typically one of the flea bags with the inevitable ‘hot bed’ [...] they often supported a living menagerie of tiny bloodsucking bedbugs known [...] as chinches.
hot belly (n.) [racial stereotyping: Mexicans like hot, peppery food; var. on pepper belly under pepper n.]

(US) a Mexican.

F. Tarpley Blinky 259: hot belly are based on a knowledge of the Mexican’s fondness for hot, spicy foods [DARE].
hot-knife (n.)

(drugs) smoking cannabis from a heated knife; the fumes are sucked up through a broken-off milk-bottle neck.

[Can]Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 7 Feb. Today I got mega stoned at Vicki’s house with some hot knives. It was wicked. I had a mean buzz going all night.
[UK]B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 45: My lungs were already shot from too many blowbacks and hot knives in the past.
K.B. Sykes Rachel 81: His friend had a smouldering piece of cannabis resin between two red-hot knives as the smoke filled the bottle [...] ‘Want a hot-knife?’ asked the man.
hot one (n.)

1. (Aus. drugs) a cannabis cigarette.

[Aus]R.G. Barrett Real Thing 85: Drinking piss, smoking plenty of hot ones and chasing snow bunnies.

2. see also separate entry .

hotpot (n.)

a hot drink made of ale and brandy.

[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Ale and Brandy boyled together.
[UK]New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 415: Hot-pots! says nestor; by apollo, / If that’s the case, we’ll quickly follow!
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist II 56: A Watchman and an old Blind Woman, troubled with the palsy, drinking hot-pot together.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
hotsmoke (n.)

(drugs) the smoking of crack cocaine.

M.S. Gold Good News about Drugs 157: Ice produces what users call ‘cool smoke’ — clean and white — as opposed to the dirty brown ‘hot smoke’ of crack.
[Aus]DRUG-ARM Aus. 🌐 Slang Terms: hotsmoke Refers to smoking Crack.
hot stepper (n.) [he runs off ‘as if his feet were on fire’]

(W.I./UK black teen) a prison-breaker, a fugitive from prison or a penal institution.

[US]‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Hotstepper. Crumbsnatcher. Rumpshaker.
hot stopping (n.)

hot spirits and water.

[UK]Carlisle Patriot 8 Feb. 4/1: While we down at Wapping, / Are drinking hot stopping, / To the health of the judges in jail.
[Aus]‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer II 30: One needs a generous wine after our adventure – and a glass of ‘hot stopping’ won’t do any harm afterwards.

In phrases

like a hen on a hot griddle (also like a hen on a hot plate, ...hot brick, like a chicken on a hot griddle, like a duck..., like a flea..., like a bear over/on hot iron, like a bug on a hot frying pan, like a goose on a hot plate)

(US/Irish) in an agitated or nervous manner.

[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 124: He prances over the pavement like a bear over hot iron.
[US]T. Haliburton Clockmaker III 134: He squeezed his cornstealers till the old gineral began to dance like a bear on red hot iron.
[UK]R.F. Walond Paddiana I 148: Ah, what are ye dancing about for, like a goose on a hot plate?
[UK]Staffs. Sentinel 12 May 3/1: He hops about [...] like a hen on a hot griddle.
J. Pycroft Cricket Tutor 16: Look at that man [...] he is like a bear on hot iron. He totters from one foot to the other.
[UK]Belfast Morn. News 16 Feb. 3/3: Poking fun at poor Earl Russell, who, always looks ‘like a hen on a hot griddle’.
A. Trollope John Caldicott 2 57: You see that girl with the green scarf- round her? [...] Why should she spring about like a bear on an hot iron.
[UK]Nottingham Eve. Post 19 Apr. 4/3: They began to fidget [...] like a hen on a hot griddle.
[UK]Liverpool Echo 15 Mar. 3/3: What was the use of hop-hopping ‘like a hen on a hot griddle’.
[Ire]Cork Examiner 19 Sept. 10/6: [He] was tearing around like a hen on a hot griddle.
[US]P.L. Dunbar Jest Of Fate (1903) 183: Don’t be afraid to move. Step like a chicken on a hot griddle!
[Ire]L. Doyle Ballygullion 142: For all that I was like a hen on a hot griddle from thin till the National.
E.E. Briggs Angling & Art in Scotland 97: We could see him dancing like a bear on hot iron, gesticulating wildly.
[US]C.E. Mulford Hopalong Cassidy Returns 204: You’ve picked out a teacher that’ll keep you hoppin’ like a bug on a hot fryin’ pan.
[Ire]L. Mackay My Oul’ Town 84: John was like a hen on a hot griddle.
[US]J. Conroy World to Win 69: Leo was fidgeting around like a duck on a hot griddle.
[US]R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 216: A restless person was said to be [...] ‘movin’ about like a hen on a hot griddle.
[US]Z.N. Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God (1998) 58: Matt was wringing and twisting like a hen on a hot brick.
[Ire]‘Flann O’Brien’ ‘In Darkest Ireland’ in Hair of the Dogma (1989) 114: Fussy as a hen in a hot girdle.
[UK]D.P. Mannix Sword-Swallower 114: The corkscrew made my Adam’s apple leap around like a flea on a hot griddle.
[UK]L. Dunne Goodbye to The Hill (1966) 53: Ma was excited too. Hopping about the kitchen like a hen on a hot plate. [Ibid.] 146: Poor Ma was hopping about like a hen on a hot griddle, worrying if I had this, that and the other.
[Ire]P. O’Keeffe Down Cobbled Streets, A Liberties Childhood 61: Every one of them is like a hen on a hot griddle.
like hot cakes (orig. US)

1. (also like hot pies, like hot cross buns) of a product or commodity, to sell out quickly; usu. as go (off) like hot cakes or sell like...

[US]Knickerbocker (NY) July 80: You had better buy ’em, Colonel, [...] they will sell like hot cakes.
G.C. Furber Twelve Months Volunteer 421: These are procured from the sutler [...] and his brandy cherries go off like hot cakes .
[Scot]Dunfermline Press 21 Apr. 4/5: There is not an unmarried man in Yarmouth. The girls there are not so particular [...] and consequently go off like hot cakes.
Goodhue Volunteer (Red Wing Goodhue Co, MN) 29 Apr. 1/3: There is quite a movement in real esate. Lots with and without improvements go off like hot cakes.
[US]G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 80: I thought it would go like hot cakes.
[UK]Star (Guernsey) 4 Nov. 4/5: Clark Russell’s sea stories go off like hot cakes.
[UK]Pall Mall Gazette 11 Oct. 6/1: Sold at one penny retail they often go off like hot cakes .
[UK]P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 37: J--- B--- wrote a song to the same air and called it ‘Two lovely black eyes,’ [...] and it went off like hot cakes.
[US](con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 281: Being a rather pretty pattern, [i.e. cloth] it went off like hot pies.
[US]Richmond Planet (VA) 31 May 1/1: ‘Yes, they’ve gone like hot cakes. That’s the checker for boys,’ said the little fellow with a businesslike air.
[Aus]L. Stone Jonah 240: They’ll go like hot cakes!
[US]M. Glass Potash And Perlmutter 20: That’s snappy stuff [...] I bet yer they sell like hot cakes.
[US]F. Hurst ‘White Goods’ in Humoresque 167: Them remnants went like hot cakes.
[UK]L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 76: They sold like hot cakes.
[UK]E. Waugh Vile Bodies 183: Those who [...] had covered their roofs with unstable wooden forms, and were selling tickets like very expensive hot cakes.
[UK]J. Franklyn This Gutter Life 310: As Yankee firms don’t pay hard cash for inventions that are not going to go like hot cakes, I look like having more money than I know how to spend!
[US]A. Kober Parm Me 85: You shoulda seen how like hot-cakes our dresses went!
[UK]Wodehouse Mating Season 151: They sell like hot cakes, Bingo tells me.
[UK]B. Pym Excellent Women (1994) 272: ‘Oh, they’ll go like hot cakes,’ said Winifred; ‘there’s always competition to buy them.’.
[UK]I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 187: Giant gob-stoppers [...] which had ‘sold like hot cakes’.
[WI]V.S. Naipaul A House For Mr Biswas 358: He tell me he does sell his papers like hot cakes.
[US]Kerouac letter 5 Dec. in Charters II (1999) 463: Mink coats and color TV are being picked up like hot cakes.
[UK]D. Nobbs Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) 75: What about the powdered Bakewell Tart mix, is it going like hot cakes?
[UK]F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 178: I hear the book is selling like hot cross buns.
[UK]Guardian Weekend 17 July 15: They sold like hot cakes.

2. of anything else, quickly, plentifully.

[US]D. Parker ‘The Little Hours’ in Parker (1943) 113: Now they’re off. And once they get started, they ought to come like hot cakes.
[NZ]A. Duff One Night Out Stealing 9: Dangerboy dropped Sonny’s hand like a hot cake.

In exclamations

hot baby!

(US) an excl. of surprise.

[US]Hecht & Bodenheim Cutie 61: ‘Hot baby!’ cries Cutie, ‘you don’t mean that you are married and that this bag of prunes is your wife?’.
[UK]Peters & Sklar Stevedore II iii: Whew! Hot baby! You tell ’em, sugar!
hot diggety (dog)!

see separate entry.

hot dog!

see separate entry.

hot puppy! (also hot pup! hot puppies!) [var. on hot dog! excl.]

(US) an excl. of pleasure.

[US]DN V 270: Hot pup,—puppie ([indicates] joy) .
[US]S.J. Perelman ‘So Little Time Marches On’ in Keep It Crisp 29: The guest who so far forgot himself as to exclaim ‘Hot puppies!’ and fill his pockets with the baubles was rarely invited again.
hot spit!

(US) an excl. in response to anything good, exciting, sexually attractive.

[US]W.C. Anderson Penelope 184: Penelope has returned. She’s come back. Hot spit!
[US]L. Rosten Dear ‘Herm’ 16: In 3 seconds he says into the phone ‘Hot spit! Yes he is!!’.
hot ziggety! (also hotzickity! hot ziddity! hot-ziggedy! hot ziggetty dog!) [var. on hot diggety (dog)! excl.]

(US) used to express excitement, enjoyment; also as adj., very enthusiastic.

[US]J.W. Carr in ‘Word-List From Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:v 398: hotzickity, interj. An exclamation.
[US]Maines & Grant Wise-crack Dict. 9/2: Hot ziggetty dog – Expressing unlimited admiration.
C.E. Mack Two Black Crows in the A. E. F. 51: ‘Hot ziggety!’ he exulted.
[UK]E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 64: Flapper: He fell for me hot ziggedy dog!
[US]J.T. Farrell Gas-House McGinty 349: He was just hot-ziggedy on savin’ time.
[US] ‘Laurel and Hardy “Doing Things”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 83: Hot ziggity is this some idea!
[US]W. Fisher Waiters 255: Hot ziddity!
[US](con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 96: You mix mothballs and gas and hot-ziggety! A Ford thinks it’s a Cadillac!
in L. McClune On Our Backs: The Best Erotic Fiction 63: I don’t know for sure that she was excited before then, but hot ziggety if that didn’t do it for her.