Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. very keen on.

1787		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Instructions to a Celebrated Laureat’ Works (1794) II 36: Red hot with novelty’s delightful rage, To Mister Whitbread forth he sent a page.
1814		P. Hawker Diary (1893) I 10 Aug. 101: The people are all red hot for Buonaparte in consequence of his having found them plenty of lucrative employment.
1837–8		‘Sam Swipes’ in Cuckold’s Nest 20: There was lanky and short, tall, chubby, and fat, / Who were all red hot for a slap at her ---.
1859		Belfast Morn. News 31 Jan. 4/3: [from pro-slavery Detroit Free Press] The father of the girl is a red-hot Abolitionist, of the whole-hog-or-nothing, nigger-as-good-as-anybody style.
1881-2		T.B. Reed Fifth Form at St Dominic’s (1890) 187: Stephen [...] of course, was red-hot for the Fifth.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Oct. 20/1: It leaks out that several of the people so red-hot to get Q. Chief Justice Griffith into the Commonwealth Parliament, on his own or any terms, look to him as the leader of the preferential-trade-with-the-Empire party. Griffith has, in private circles, championed that idea for years past.
1969		C. Himes Blind Man with a Pistol (1971) 75: Sharp cats cruising up the Avenue all day long [...] red-hot for a big Southern blonde.

2. obsessive; utterly dedicated.

1824		Pierce Egan’s Life in London 19 Sept. 269/1: A red hot Patlander, accompanied by a fellow Grecian from the back slums of the Holy Land.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 48: Ninetenths of these villains are red-hot politicians.
1855		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Jan. 10/2: Red hot Subaltern.—Well, what is it?
1864		‘Edmund Kirke’ Down in Tennessee 86: Why, he’s a red-hot Rebel.
1877		‘The Fashionable Coaley’ in Laughing Songster 101: I am Vhig – though once I vos / A red-hot ranting Radical!
1886		M.E. Braddon Mohawks II 98: There was a time when I was a red-hot Jacobite.
1895		J. Greenwood Behind A Bus 22: If I had not been in such a red-hot hurry.
1899		E. Townshend ‘Chimmie Fadden’s Fun’ 9 Feb. [synd. col.] His Whiskers is de reddest hot Republican ever shook out of de box.
1908		L. Doyle Ballygullion 128: Some av the red-hot Nationalists kept takin’ quare skellys at a flag in the corner wi’ King William on it.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 500: You’ll go to a man of mine in Glasgow, a red-hot agitator who chooses that way of doing his bit for his country.
1925		A. Christie Secret of Chimneys (1956) 25: She’s a red-hot Socialist.
1946		J.F. Powers ‘Prince of Darkness’ in Accent (Winter) 79: A backslider he could handle, it was the old story, but a red hot believer, especially a talkative one, could be a devilish nuisance.
1957		J. Braine Room at the Top (1959) 204: Thought you were a red-hot Labour man.
1961		(con. 1920s) J. Sparks Burglar to the Nobility 34: I [...] saw a red-hot geezer with a college scarf and a Bentley tourer, seeking the bubble reputation on our tails.
1972		J. McNeill Old Familiar Juice (1973) 61: bulla: [Y]ers were a bunch of red ’ot dills.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 122: The only reason that fellow got knocked over was that he’s a red-hot nark.
1986		R. Fitzgerald Pushed from the Wings (1989) 89: He’s [...] a red-hot Mick [...] Sherline’s presented him with nine kiddies.

3. (US campus) excellent, perfect.

1871		L.H. Bagg Four Years at Yale 46: Redhot, excellent, perfect, magnificent.
1888		J. Runciman Chequers 187: You’re a red-hot member!
1895		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘A Bushman’s Song’ in Man from Snowy River (1902) 126: He cantered home a winner, with the other one at the flog — / He’s a red-hot sort to pick up with his old jig-jog.
1907		C.E. Mulford Bar-20 x: Oh we’re red-hot cow-punchers playin’ on our luck.
1916		‘A-No. 1’ Snare of the Road 94: Hobnobbing with the millionaires at Palm Beach and other red hot places.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 286: We sure do have some red-hot times on the campus.
1930		Andy Kirk ‘Once or Twice’ 🎵 Of course, you know you’ll need a red hot flat, / A beautiful girl, and it’s tight like that.
1942		Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1002: A red hot pimp like you say you is, ain’t got no business in the barrel.
1959		W. Tevis Hustler (1998) 8: I was a red-hot pool player.
1962		E. Stephens Blow Negative! 317: Like an old-time salesman with a red-hot gimmick.
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 52: The poetry was not only a surprise, the damn shit was red-hot.

4. furious, enraged.

1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 227: When I arrived the boys were red-hot, for [they] had been down to the landing, and had found that the boat and the mules were gone.
1897		Mirror of Life 7 July 3/1: [F]ive witnesses came forward on behalf of the firm [...] and there was a lot of red-hot swearing.
1924		V.M. Hillyer A Child’s History of the World 159: The Greeks who heard Demosthenes were red-hot against Philip while they listened to him.
1998		B. Hubbard Substantial Evidence 50: White was still red hot about the October autopsy where Erdmann had failed to check the victim’s stomach contents and brought the case to a screeching halt.

5. of a bet, very likely, certain; thus red-hottie, a ‘sure thing’.

1890		Sporting Times 3 May 1/3: It was his invariable custom to lay impossible prices against red-hot favourites, and, if the good thing came off, to do a careful guy with the bloominger brass.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 5 July 9/1: B.C., the famous racing tipster [...] will have some red hotties for [the] next meeting .
1952		K. Vonnegut ‘Any Reasonable Offer’ in Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) 40: I took the advice of the last one I had, and a red-hot prospect and his wife walked out with their noses in the air.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 108: Manly won the minor premiership by 10 points, and entered the final series warm, if not red-hot, favourites.

6. (US) erotic, sexy, provocative.

1882		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 June 10/3: [T]he inmates [i.e. of a convent] were soon warmed up by ‘Barbe Blue,’ ‘Le Belle Helene’ and other red-hot stuff.
1909		H. Lawson ‘Biddy O’Dowd’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 350: The vaudeville star retires, and leaves / The stage, and her red-hot past.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 173: Youse kin go in the flies an’ take a look at the red-hot babies.
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 41: Say, you know there was a red-hot high yellow bedded down.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 95: The red-hot baby with her boyish figure, bobbed hair and short skirts had gone out of style.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 43: They were so lonely and I was so bored that we began smuggling red-hot notes back and forth.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 100: Him so redhot he might turn queer.
1970		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 152: From out of the woods came Pisspot Pete / with eighteen pounds of red-hot meat.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 70: A red hot poof had tried to get on to him in a bottle shop.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 97: How ’bout one a them red-hot kisses like you give that other guy?

7. (Aus.) unfair, unreasonable.

1892		H. Lawson ‘Jones’s Alley’ in Roderick (1972) 38: Bill heroically repeated that it [i.e. an example of ill luck] was ‘red-hot’.
1906		Punch (Melbourne) 27 Sept. 4/2: They cudn’t ply a fair and onerst gime if they wos paid fer it; they [...] ’ad squared ther umpire. It was red ’ot.
1910		L. Esson Woman Tamer in Ballades of Old Bohemia (1980) 69: Constable: They’re [his hands] more used to picking pockets than skinning rabbits. / Smithy: That’s red hot. You can’t book me for the vag.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 RED ’OT — Unfair; extreme.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 108: I checked the red-hot crack that rose to the lips.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 59: A red hot price.
1955		N. Pulliam I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 238/1: red hot – unjust or outrageous, unreasonable.

8. lively, entertaining.

1901		S. Crane in Metropolitan mag. Feb. in Stallman (1966) 208: That’s no sign of a red-hot town. It’s the sign of a dead-slow town.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 4 Sept. 4/1: That red-hot joint known as the Forest Lodge Racing Club.
1971		B. Short Black and White Baby 186: The red-hot hoofers that so delighted the Toledo reviewers were Freddy Gordon and Timmy Rogers, a clever and successful team.

9. in a relationship, intense, devoted.

1930

W.R. Burnett Iron Man 281: The other two have got red-hot sweeties they got to ditch.

10. (US prison) tense, nervous, on edge.

1935		D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 78: To describe that tenseness on con-talk, you say that everything is red-hot.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 176/1: Red hot, a. [...] 4. (P) Characterized by a tense atmosphere, as a result of an escape, riot, general search, or similar serious occurrence.

11. (US Und.) extremely suspect; intensely pursued by the law.

1937		T. Thursday ‘License for Theft’ in Ten Detective Aces Sept. 🌐 Although I think you knew this car was red hot, I am going to give you a break.
1948		R.L. Bellem ‘Death Ends the Scene’ Hollywood Detective May 🌐 I’m red-hot with the cops just now. There’s a dragnet out for me.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 176/1: Red hot, a. [...] 2. Actively sought by police.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 93: I was red-hot in Kansas City.