TO GIVE (GET, or CATCH) IT HOT, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To thrash or reprove soundly; to be severely beaten or taken to task.
1859. Fast Life, p. 54. The craters, of course, caught it hot, and many had the sack.
1872. Figaro, 22 June. The German Emperor, Bismarck, and Earl Granville also got it, but not quite so hotly.
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 887. A young man who . . . had been guilty of bigamy, and to such a degree that he got it hot for such a crime—five years.
1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 32. She spotted me in 'alf a jiff, and chaffed me precious hot.
Like a cat on hot bricks, phr. (colloquial).—Uncomfortable; restive.
1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xvi. Lady Mainwaring looked like an eel in a frying-pan, or, most of anything perhaps, like a cat on hot bricks.
Hot with, phr. (common).—Spirits with hot water and sugar. See Cider and, and Cold without.
Hot-arsed, adj. phr. (venery).—Excessively
lewd. [Of women
only.] Cf., Biter.
HOT-BEEF. TO GIVE HOT-BEEF,
verb. phr. (thieves' rhyming).—To
cry 'Stop thief.' Also Beef
(q.v.)
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 506. He followed, giving me hot beef (calling 'Stop thief').
Hot-cakes. To go off like
hot cakes, verb. phr. (common).—To
sell readily; to be in good
demand.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Oct., p. 6, c. 1. Sold at one penny retail they often GO OFF LIKE HOT CAKES.
1893 Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xii. It went off like hot cakes.
Hot-foot, adv. (colloquial).—Instant
in pursuit.
Hotch-potch, subs. (old: now
recognised).—A medley; a Hodge-podge
(q.v.).
1597. Hall, Satires, i., 3. A goodly hotch-potch when vile russettings are matched with monarchs and mighty kings.
1606. Return from Parnassus, iv., 2. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 183). This word, hotch-potch in English is a pudding; for in such a pudding is commonly not one thing only, but one thing with another.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hotch-potch, an Oglio, or Medly of several Meats in one Dish.
c. 1709. W. King, Art of Cookery, ix. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 259). The first delighting in hodge-*podge, gallimaufry, forced meats . . . and salmagundy.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1728. Patrick Walker, Alexander Peden, 'Postscript' (ed. 1827, i., 128). A hotch-potch or bagful of Arian, Arminian, Socinian, Pelagian, etc.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Oct., p. 2, c. 1. Both are a sort of hotchpotch of songs, dances, and extravaganzas.
Hot-coppers, subs. (common).—The
fever and parched throat,
or MOUTH (q.v.), attending a
debauch. See Cool one's Copper.
1830. Egan, Finish to Life in London, 156. The 'uncommonly big gentleman' in spite of swallowing oceans of soda-water, declared his copper to be so hot that he thought all the water in the sea could not reduce his thirst!
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 244. 'Oh blow your physiology!' says Rapp. 'You mean to say you've got a hot copper—so have I. Send for the precious balm and then fire away.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xliii. 'Nothing like that beer,' he remarked 'when the coppers are hot.'
1864. Comic Almanack, p. 63. 'Cold Cream Internally.' Cold cream is an excellent remedy for hot coppers.
