Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a sexual athlete, used of either sex [note 17C hot-shot, one who discharged his firearm too enthusiastically].

1604		Marston Malcontent Act I: Amongst a hundred French-men, fortie hot shottes.
1608		Merry Devil of Edmonton IV i: You are a couple of hot-shots; does a man commit his wench to you, to put her to grasse at this time of night?
1613		Dekker Devil’s Last Will and Testament F2: Out of these Rankes were those Hot-shots (the Masquers) drawne.
1670		J. Ray Proverbs 214: You are a hot shot.
1683		R. Dixon Canidia iv 49: She there lies Leager, / Till she can find another, eager / Upon the Business, some hot Shot / That has a mind to go to th’ Pot.
1932		Blind Willie McTell ‘Searching the Desert for the Blues’ 🎵 You might go across the deep blue sea / But mama you’ll never find another hot shot like me.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] C’mon, hot shot [...] let’s see how you do with me.
1982		J. Ellroy Clandestine 85: ‘I'm interested in pickup artists—pussy-hounds, guys who score regular here’ [...] ‘We get hotshots, they come and go’.

2. (orig. US, also hot) an important, influential person or one who believes that they are.

1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 356: My eye! [...] what a red-hot shot of a fellow that there Allen must be, surely!
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 20/3: Our clergy are namby-pamby, mealy-mouthy, and creepy-crawly in their pulpit prayers over this war. Let us have some regular good red-hot gospel shots.
1930		G. Milburn Hobo’s Hornbook 35: There was Bugs Stein and Flickers O’Brien, [...] Lunger Scott and The Canton Hot Shot, / And some ’boes I never met.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 375: This Earle guy didn’t have his reputation for nothing like some so-called big hots you ran into!
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 184: If you’re such a hotshot [...] why didnt you transfer Prewitt into my platoon, like I asked you the other day?
1962		(con. 1940s) G. Mandel Wax Boom 13: Finch was all right. A little bit of a hotshot, but all right.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 78: They all go running to the new hotshot.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 118: Let one of the young hotshots do the knife work.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 203: Put the hand down and sit, hotshot.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 181: The sexy sunglass-wearing hotshots with toned bodies and beautiful faces.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: That’s the thing with these big hot -shots like Davie Geddes: they forget where they came from.
2015		G. Disher Heat [ebook] Trask, picturing Leah with the hotshot, cleared his throat.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 42: ‘You think you’re a hotshot. One day you’ll learn, you’re not so big of a hotshot’.
2020		G. Disher Consolation 83: ‘You drive, hotshot’.

3. (US) a cutting or sarcastic remark [shot n.¹ (3a)].

1894		C.W. Gardner Doctor and the Devil 61: ‘Hot shot, Doctor,’ I remarked to myself.
1908		W.G. Davenport Butte and Montana 85: Hot Shot at Our Rivals [HDAS].
1916		Dly Gate City (Keokuk, IA) 5 Mar. 5/3: Scvoville’s sermon last night was [...] full of ‘hot shots’.
1929		(con. 1917–18) C. MacArthur War Bugs 191: It’s good they get their high pay. To buy champagne ’most every day. (There’s a hot shot).

4. (US tramp) a stolen car.

1929		V.W. Saul ‘Vocab. of Bums’ in AS IV:5 341: Hot-shot—A stolen auto.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 105: Hot Shot.– [...] An automobile stolen during the preceding few hours, the theft not yet discovered and reported to the police.

5. (US tramp) a fast freight train.

1927		C. Samolar ‘Argot of the Vagabond’ in AS II:9 388: Fast freights are known as red balls, cannon balls, hot-shots.
1933		N. Algren ‘So Help Me’ from Story mag. in Texas Stories (1995) 19: When we got to Houston we had the chance to hop a hot-shot clear down to the valley.
1945		F.H. Hubbard Railroad Avenue 2: The crummy silently does stand. / The hotshot’s clamor fills the air.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 167: There was a hotshot or nonstop express to Toledo making up in the yards.

6. (drugs) the substitution of cyanide, strychnine or battery acid for white powdered heroin; when injected by the addict, it causes instant death and leaves no trace; also as v., to sell or take such a preparation [shot n.¹ (6b)].

1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 122/2: hot shot. Cyanide or other fast-working poison concealed in dope to do away with a dangerous or troublesome addict.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 157: Hot Shot . . . Poison, usually strychnine, passed to an addict as junk. The peddler sometimes slips a hot shot to an addict because the addict is giving information to the law.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 48: Sometimes, she knew, these ‘hotshots’ contain no heroin at all, but rat poison. Addicts call this type of hot-shot a ‘ten-cent pistol’ because the poison costs a dime but is as effective as a gun.
1978		H. Selby Jr Requiem for a Dream (1987) 174: Ive seen a lotta good guys get blown away or hot shotted.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 341: They hotshotted her because she was your old lady.
1987		Sydney Morn. Herald 1 Feb. 6/6: [A] ‘hot shot’ - a lethal overdose which is a common method of murder in the drug underworld.
1988		H. Gould Double Bang 61: You gave him a hotshot so he wouldn’t give you up to the cops.
1994		G. Indiana Rent Boy 87: Two disposal problems [...] but one’s like a part-time addict that would only need a hot shot.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 202: He’s perfectly capable of [...] giving an already gouged-out semi-conscious smackhead a hot-shot.
2003		Simon & Burns ‘Hot Shots’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 3 [TV script] ‘What’s goin’ on?’ [...] ‘Hot-shot!’.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] One of the girls [...] got picked up on a heroin bust [...] When she got let out on bail she died of a hot shot.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] ‘That girl, I checked her purse. No fits, no gear. Someone came up here, gave her a hotshot’.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] — Do you think he vas capable of killing her? — You mean like giving her a hot shot?

7. (US und.) a mix of drugs, a ‘lethal injection’ (adopted 1977, first used 1982), that causes death and is used to execute prisoners in certain US states.

2013

T. Piccirilli Last Whisper in the Dark 9: I didn’t want him [i.e. a dog] to have to get the hot shot like Collie had.

8. ironic use of sense 2, usu. as a term of address.

1930		M. West Babe Gordon (1934) 15: The girls were bombarded with an avalanche of reek. ‘Hello there Babe!’ [...] ‘Hot shot! Here’s the hot-point sisters again!’.
1946		R.L. Bellem ‘Latin Blood’ in Speed Detective Aug. 🌐 ‘Well, hot shot,’ he greeted me sourly.
1953		W.P. McGivern Big Heat 147: The cops have that hot-shot you imported from Chicago.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 107: What’s the hurry, hot shots?
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 210: Don’t conk out on me now, hotshot!
1983		C. Heath A-Team 2 (1984) 53: ‘Freeze hotshot,’ Smith advised the SWAT man.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] ‘Bit of a hotshot, eh, Niall? Bit of a bully?’.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 421: Show a little restraint, hotshot.