Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Can.) sexually promiscuous.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 573: since ca. 1910.

2. (US) sexually aroused.

1994

N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 41: When I slipped my hand in that blouse, that bitch got hot as a firecracker.

3. (US) under suspicion, liable to arrest.

1936		(ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 32: ‘We’re getting hotter’n a firecracker on these little stick-ups we’ve pulled,’ I protested.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 114: You’re hot as a firecracker in this town.

(US) extremely hot, whether as to temperature or sexuality.

1935		J. Conroy World to Win 88: His jocker was waitin’ fer ’im, hot as a hen laying a goose egg.
1953		W. Fisher Waiters 227: I’m jus’ hotter than a chicken wid the pox.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 110: hot 1. passionate, see horny ‘He’s as hot as a pregnant fox in a forest fire!’.
1974		(con. 1945) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 317: It’s a bitch down there. Hotter than a fresh fucked fox in a forest fire!
1982		R.M. Brown Southern Discomfort (1983) 27: Hot as a forty balled tomcat.
1984		in Maledicta VIII 237: She’s hotter than a fresh-fucked fox in a forest fire.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Hotter than a horn toad in a microwave (phrase) Extremely hot.
2014		B. Turner My Life as a Foreign Country n.p.: Jesus H Sergeant, I swear — it’s hotter’n a French whore in N’Orealns, even with the cloud cover.

1. (US, also hot as a bad girl’s dream, ...July jam, ...mustard) very angry.

1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 43: You done got me jus’ ez hot ez July jam, and Ah ain’t got no mo’ use fuh yuh than Ah is for mah baby shirt.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 22: ’E was ’ot as mustard was our skipper.
1971		(con. 1930s) D. Wells Night People 69: The cat took my whole week’s salary in just four hands [...] He added fuel to the fire with seven words: ‘Let that be a lesson to you!’ [...] I was as hot as a bad girl’s dream.
1992		Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore I 172: A gambler who says, ‘I’m hotter’n a pistol,’ means only that he is having a run of luck [...] while the same expression applied to an elderly man may mean that he’s in a towering rage.

2. (US, also hot as a 45) suspicious, wanted by the police; undergoing intense police pressure.

1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Hot as a 45, wanted by the police.
1943		W.R. Burnett Nobody Lives for Ever 236: ‘What are you doing here? Things are hotter than a two-dollar pistol’.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 102/2: Hot as a forty-five. (‘Forty-five’— large calibre pistol) 1. Wanted on a serious charge or series of charges.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 57: I’m hot as a three-dollar pistol.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 804: hotter than a pistol – ‘Wanted’ by the police for a recent crime; public-enemy number one [...] A prisoner in a penitentiary who has extremely contraband articles in his possession.

3. (US) very popular or successful.

1947		B. Schulberg Harder They Fall (1971) 141: Stein was pistol-hot, so I thought we might as well cut ourselves in on some of his publicity.
1962		T. Southern ‘Razor Fight’ in Southern (1973) 28: Big Nail winnin’! [...] Big Nail hot as a two-dollah pistol!
1992		Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore I 172: A gambler who says, ‘I’m hotter’n a pistol,’ means only that he is having a run of luck.

4. (US) very hot.

1951

L. Brown Iron City 150: He fetched all the coal-oil he could find and he poured it on the fire. Hot? Whooeee! Hotter’n a two-dollar pistol on the Fourth of July.

5. (US black) sexually aroused.

1971

E. Bullins ‘Dandy’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 90: Dandy clutched the big yaller hot as a ten-cent-pistol gal to himself and worried how he would tell Jack Bowen in the morning that he had never touched his baby sister.

(US) very hot.

1946		P. Bowman Beach Red 43: I didn’t have enough oil in my rifle [...] it started getting as hot as a witch’s tit.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Real Life’ in Knockemstiff 1: It was hotter than a fat lady’s box that evening.

(US) of a woman, sexually voracious.

1977

Maledicta 1 (Summer) 17: If she is willing, [...] she is hotter than a little red wagon, or hotter than a bitch-wolf.