Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hot adv.

also hot-hot
[hot adj.]

1. ardently, eagerly, violently, severely, angrily.

[[UK]Shakespeare London Prodigal D: I see this matter is hotly carried, But ile labour to disswade him from it].
[UK] ‘Wellington’s Victory’ in Wellington’s Laurels 2: When the British came after so hot, / The French s--t their breeches with quaking.
[UK]D. Jerrold Men of Character I 191: [They] remaining silent on the perils they encountered, return with Jack Runnymede, still hot upon the game, to London.
[US]W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas (1847) 164: ’Way he’d go, and I arter – hot as h-ll, too.
[US] ‘Captain Jones’ Victory’ in Jack Tar’s Songster 102: Our shot flew so hot that they could not stand us long.
[UK]J. Greenwood Little Ragamuffin 11: You do let her have it awfully hot sometimes, Jim.
[Ind]‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 120: ‘I gave it ‘em hot’.
[UK] ‘’Arry on the Turf’ in Punch 29 Nov. 297/1: The thing looked a moral, my boy, and I put on the stuff pooty ’ot.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 5 Sept. 5/2: Shakey, take a fader’s plessing, / Take it, for you ket it sheap, / Go in hot for making money, / Go in for to make a heap.
[UK]Sporting Times 17 Apr. 2/2: Lord Hartington has ‘napped it hot’ for having gone on the same platform as Lord Salisbury.
[UK] ‘Mashed by a Marchioness’ in ‘F. Anstey’ Mr. Punch’s Model Music Hall 32: She spotted me in ’alf a jiff, and chaffed me precious hot!
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 10 Jan. 5/3: A bad half-sov. from a gent, my eye, that’s coming it pretty hot.
[US]E. Townshend ‘Chimmie Fadden’s Fun’ 9 Feb. [synd. col.] ‘If you interrupt me so hot I will lose me bearings’.
[UK]Boys Of The Empire 23 Oct. 34: We shall be in for it uncommon hot.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Sept. 12/3: Have you noticed that even young, unthinking girls are hot against second marriages?
[UK]Kipling ‘The Comprehension of Private Copper’ in Traffics and Discoveries 170: Old Jerrold’s givin’ it you ’ot. You’re the uneducated ’ireling of a callous aristocracy.
[UK]A. Brazil Leader of the Lower School 165: ‘Oh, do let me speak! I’ll give it them hot!’ .
[Aus]Sport (Adelaide) 31 Jan. 10/1: Schwartz is going pretty hot at the Freeling Hospital. He is seen out with the nurses pretty often .
[US]P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 189: The shacks must ’a’ passed yer by, they was so hot arter me.
[Aus]Sun (Sydney) 17 Aug. 7/6: At the police station Kinman said, ‘I’ll take what is coming to me as far as the ‘bust’ is concerned, but don’t go too hot on the gun stuff.’ .
[US](con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 725: My old man and old lady weren’t any more hot on the idea than yours.
[US]Z.N. Hurston Seraph on the Suwanee (1995) 657: He pitched into Dessie hot and heavy.
[WI]S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 138: If things open up hot I outing off fast.
[WI]O. Senior ‘Ballad’ Summer Lightning 102: I just sit quiet till she forget what she talking bout because if I make any sound she quick to fire me a box hot-hot.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Sept. 4: hot – attracted to and in pursuit of: I’m hot after him.
[US]J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 116: Soon as I got my thirty thousand. Maybe fifty, or sixty if Nellis was playing hot.

2. well, much.

[US]Ted Yates This Is New York 26 Apr. [synd. col.] Harlem’s ‘hot’ spots are not doing so hot.
[US]D. Fuchs Low Company 82: Hell, I don’t like the idea so hot, either.
[US]E. Hunter Blackboard Jungle 295: He can’t read so hot, Mr Dadier.
[US]H. Williamson Hustler 33: I didn’t like her too hot, but I guess she was all right.
[US]R. Price Blood Brothers 63: Albert didn’t do so hot.
[US]S. King It (1987) 243: The dam wasn’t working so hot anyway.
[US]C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 49: You don’t listen so hot.

3. of gambling, successfully.

[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 89: You know how it is with horseplayers, you hit it hot and you think it’s all over.

In compounds

hot foot (v.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

get it hot (v.)

1. to be punished (lit. or fig.) severely.

Fast Life 54: The craters, of course, caught it hot, and many had the sack [F&H].
[UK]Wild Boys of London I 7/1: He’d a got it hot, only it happens that another peeler sees all about it, and puts in a good word.
[UK]Five Years’ Penal Servitude 287: [He] had been guilty of bigamy, and to such a degree that he ‘got it hot’ for such a crime — five years.
[NZ]N.Z. Observer (Auckland) 22 Jan. 182/1: The Star is to get it hot at Lingard’s benefit tonight. Roll up all of you.
[UK]W.S. Gilbert ‘The Troubadour’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 30: They gets it pretty hot, / The maidens what we cotch.
[UK]F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 100: He got it hot and heavy ’bout the head.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 11 Nov. 6/3: I’d like that Truth to get it hot, / And catch it every day.
[UK]D. Stewart Wild Tribes of London in Illus. Police News 15 Feb. 12/2: ‘I fancy Bendigo will get it prety hot’.
[Aus]R.D. Doughty diary 10 Aug. 🌐 Our fellows got it pretty heavy in one corner, but Johny Turk got it hot too.
[UK]S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 289: When they do get into the Courts, though, they get it hot!
[UK]Derby Dly Teleg. 9 Apr. 12/5: [headline] Raiders Get It Hot at Home.

2. to be scolded with great venom.

[UK]Trollope Duke’s Children (1954) 378: She’ll get it hot and heavy before she has done.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 13/2: Wonder if he’ll get as much knocking about in Egypt as he used to give us at school-drill? Shouldn’t be surprised if he did; tho’ I don’t know, we used to get it precious hot sometimes when we didn’t march in time.
[Aus]H. Lawson ‘Mitchell’s Jobs’ in Roderick (1972) 148: He got it hot from his wife [...] for being in that beastly, drunken state in the main street in the middle of the day.
[Aus]‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 312: I got it hot. Had I committed an act of premeditated villainy I could not have received more lecturing.
give it hot (and strong) (v.)

1. to castigate severely.

[US]H.L. Williams Black-Eyed Beauty 46: If Nathan excused him for a couple of nights, and kept quiet, away from Matty, ‘she gave it him hot’ the next time they met.
[UK]J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 7: You may guess what they thought of it by giving it me so hot.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 18/2: [T]he proprietor frankly invites his writers to dismiss all thought of libel laws and ‘give it hot’ to everybody who deserves it.
[UK]Gloucs. Echo 17 Nov. 1/7: Give it ’em Hot.
[Scot]Aberdeen jrnl 26 Feb. 1/5: [headline] Braved Cold to Give It Hot to Attlee.

2. to attack and/or punish severely.

[UK]Wild Boys of London I 107/2: They was too strict, sir,—used to wallop me [...] Let me have it hot with the cane; and sometimes a spank in the chops.
[UK] ‘’Arry to the Front!’ in Punch 9 Mar. 100/2: That Bear is in want of a basting / [...] / He’s in for a larrup, that’s clear, and I ’ope we shall give it ’im ’ot.
[UK] ‘’Arry on a Jury’ in Punch 15 Apr. 177/2: There was one Jew chap let hoff I should like to ’ave given it ’ot to.
[UK]Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 24 May 28/2: This was ‘givin’ it ’em ’ot,’ a local critic remarked.
[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘The English Way’ in Awfully Big Adventure (1919) 255: Give it to ’em hot and strong!