A-Z Database

A-Z Database

All A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Hot and bothered

Earliest citations for this expression describing a state of agitation and anxiety are from the 1920s. Therefore, it may well have been coined by Rudy...

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Hot button

To press the hot button or buttons is to accelerate or fast-forward an issue; an American expression that dates from the early 1960s. It also has sexu...

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Hot dinners

To do something more than other people have had hot dinners, is a jocular British idiom that expresses great frequency or wide experience at having ex...

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Hot dog

This famous American snack, a hot, Frankfurter type sausage in a long bread roll has spread all over the world. The name first made its appearance in...

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Hot foot

To set a hot or quick pace, to move quickly, dates from the 1400s.


Hot potato

A hot potato is a contentious or controversial issue that one might drop like a hot potato. Both expressions date from the 1850s.


Hot to trot

Ready, willing and eager to get going, originally for sex and then later by extension for any activity. It derives from US black jive talk in the 1950...

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Hot under the collar

Annoyance or anger from the uncomfortable heat of anger under one’s collar or around one’s neck, dates from the late 19th/early 20th century.


Hot water

To be in hot water is to be in trouble, dates from the early 16th century.


Hot-blooded

see In cold blood


Hotbed

Originally, early 1600s, a bed of earth heated by fermenting manure for raising or encouraging plant growth, figurative use and meaning for the rapid...

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Hotchpotch

A medley or jumble of different things dates from the 1400s and derives from the Old French hochepot, from hocher to shake, literally to shake the pot...

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Hothead/hot-headed

Headstrong, rash, impetuous person dates from the mid-17th century.


Hotshot

A showy, vacuous, impetuous person, an American expression dates from the 1920s. Its earlier reference to shooting, either recklessly or expertly, is...

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Hotspur

Literally, one whose spur is hot from impetuous, fast-paced riding dates from the 1400s, hence one that is impetuous or fiery-spirited, which dates fr...

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