red-hot

adjectiveB22 meaningsleans spoken

Red-hot means glowing with heat. Also, in a quite different sense, wildly popular at this moment.

The literal sense is metallurgical and precise, since steel glows red at around six hundred degrees and white-hot is hotter still. The figurative sense covers form, favourites and news, so a red-hot favourite is expected to win and a red-hot tip is fresh information. There is also red-hot in the sense of intense, as in a red-hot argument. The hyphen is standard.

Definitions of red-hot

1adjectivered-hotHeated until it glows red.B2
“The poker was red-hot at the tip.”
2adjectiveextremelyExtremely popular or in excellent form.C1
“They went into the final as red-hot favourites.”

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 8 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

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red-hot

adjectiveB22 meaningsleans spoken

Red-hot means glowing with heat. Also, in a quite different sense, wildly popular at this moment.

Definitions of red-hot

1adjectivered-hotHeated until it glows red.B2
“The poker was red-hot at the tip.”
2adjectiveextremelyExtremely popular or in excellent form.C1
“They went into the final as red-hot favourites.”

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 8 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word