hot

blow hot and cold alternate inconsistently between two moods, attitudes, or courses of action; be sometimes enthusiastic, sometimes unenthusiastic about something.

☞ This phrase refers to a fable involving a traveller who was offered hospitality by a satyr and offended his host by blowing on his cold fingers to warm them and on his hot soup to cool it.

drop someone or something like a hot potato quickly abandon someone or something. informal

☞ Drop here is used literally, but also in the figurative sense of 'end a social acquaintance with someone'. A hot potato can be used independently as a metaphor for a controversial or awkward issue or problem that no one wants to deal with.

go hot and cold experience sudden feelings of fear, embarrassment, or shock.

1973Anthony PriceOctober Men His wife had said…that she had gone 'all hot and cold' after nearly being run over.

have the hots for be sexually attracted to. informal

1996Janette Turner HospitalOyster One summer night, there was a man with a knife, a man on my own surveying team, a man I fancied, a man I knew had the hots for me.

hot air empty talk that is intended to impress.

2002Andrew TaylorDeath's Own Door Lydmouth's such a small place tongues are bound to wag. Ten to one it's just hot air.

hot and bothered: seebothered.

hot and heavy intense; with intensity. North American informal

hot off the press (of information) completely new and previously unknown.

2005Sugar The news that these thoroughbred A-listers exist isn't exactly hot off the press.

hot on the heels of following closely.

hot to trot ready and eager to engage in an activity. informal

hot under the collar angry, resentful, or embarrassed.

2000Laurence McTaggartBeing Catholic Today Do you get hot under the collar about vacuous musical moanings in church, or fired up at the thought of young people living 'in sin'?

in hot water in a situation of difficulty, trouble, or disgrace.

1997TV Quick Hunter finds himself in hot water when a local TV reporter accuses him of police brutality-and is later found dead.

like a cat on a hot tin roof (or on hot bricks): seecat.

make it (or things) hot for someone make life difficult for someone.

more - than someone has had hot dinners: seedinner.

piping hot: seepiping.

sell like hot cakes: seecake.

strike while the iron is hot: seestrike.

too hot to hold you (of a place) not safe to remain in because of your past misconduct.

1984Gwyn JonesA History of the Vikings Of Naddod we read that he was…a viking of note who seems to have made Norway and other Norse settlements too hot to hold him.