white heat
[heat n. 1 c.]
That degree of heat or temperature (higher than red heat) at which metals and some other bodies radiate white light; the state of being white-hot.
| 1710 J. Harris Lex. Techn. II, White or Flame Heat; is a Degree of Heat given by Smiths to their Iron..: This is a less Heat than a Welding Heat. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 357 If a bar of iron or steel, at a white heat, be rubbed with a roll of sulphur, the two bodies combine,..forming sulphuret of iron. c 1865 Letheby in Circ. Sci. I. 89/2, 2000° (or an incipient white-heat). |
b. fig. A state of intense or extreme emotion.
| 1839 Syd. Smith Ballot 8 There are politicians always at a white heat. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. 148 Carlyle is one of the natures, rare in these latter centuries, capable of rising to a white heat. 1883 W. H. Bishop Ho. Merch. Pr. xix. (1885) 292 There was a vixenish quality in her anger when at white heat. |