Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US campus) good, excellent.

1889		Daily Times (Richmond, VA) 28 July 6/5: [headline] In The Hot Dog Days.
1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 20: hot-dog. Good, superior.
1932		C. McKay Gingertown 148: Honey-baby, brown-gal, black-boy, hot-dog blues.
1958		E. Dundy Dud Avocado (1960) 41: Was this going to be easier than I thought? Hot dog.
1966		New Yorker 31 Dec. 28: He’s a hot-dog surfer and he used to be real wigged on Zen.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 35: The pilot was a hotdog Vietnam vet called ‘Skypork’.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 285: She’s a hotdog racing boat!

2. (US ) showy, flamboyant.

1928		J. Agate Gemel in London 60: The blacks sang ‘Lulu’s Zulu,’ ‘Hot-Dog Momma’.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 105: He was dressed in what Sam called hot-dog clothes.
1966		New Yorker 31 Dec. 28: He’s a hot-dog surfer and he used to be real wigged on Zen.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 120: I had innumerable hot dog riders and biker toughies visiting me with intentions of joining up.
1984		J. Ellroy Because the Night 103: ‘Hot-dog cops like Hopkins give sensitive, safety-conscious policemen like me a bad name’.

3. greedy.

1922

Ogden Standard-Examiner (UT) 18 June 37/2: His mother is hot dog for dough but she’ll have to fight me.