hot water
1. a. Water at a high temperature, either naturally as in a hot spring, or artificially heated for cookery, washing or other purposes.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 42 Hoot watir, þouȝ it aswage akþe, to þe prickynge of a senewe is most greuaunce. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 24 Sethe hem in hot water. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 524 A certaine herb called Chia, of which they..drinke with hot water. 1858 Lardner Hand-bk. Nat. Phil., Hydrost. etc. 277 If cold water be poured into a vessel..and hot water be carefully poured over it..the hot water will float on the cold. |
| attrib. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 171 The hot⁓water cistern. 1855 Mrs. Gaskell Lizzie Leigh 163 Pack up for each his portion of the dainty dish, and send it separately, in hot-water trays. 1872 Young Englishwoman Nov. 610/2 Cover for a hot-water tin. 1877 E. S. Dallas Kettner's Bk. of Table 332 Hot-water paste for raised pies. 1895 Kipling Day's Work (1898) 373 He turned to explore the hot-water dishes on the sideboard. 1904 Goodchild & Tweney Technol. & Sci. Dict. 291/1 Hot water system, a method of warming effected by means of hot water or steam circulating in a system of closed pipes. 1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 24 Mar. 3/1 Attractive modern home, hot water heating, lot 90 × 180, three bedrooms, [etc.] 1926 W. de la Mare Connoisseur 48 In spite of the hot-water-fountain on the counter it was..cooler in here. 1926 S. T. Warner Lolly Willowes i. 46 The maid..laid the folded towel across the hot-water can. 1932 Edinburgh Bk. Plain Cookery Recipes 149 Hot-Water Crust. Used for Savoury Dishes. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. Dec. 575/1 In almost all houses the hot-water cupboard was used for airing clothes. 1956 G. Taylor Silver ix. 191 Hot-water jugs were set on classical tripod legs with a spirit lamp between. 1970 Simon & Howe Dict. Gastron. 290/2 Hot-water crust is a stiff dough moulded to make a filling of meat or game. |
b. Special comb.:
hot-water bottle, a receptacle made of rubber, metal, or other material that may be filled with hot water and used for warming a bed, or for applying local heat to the body;
hot-water pipe usu. pl., the pipe(s) in a water-heating system.
| 1895 Montgomery Ward Catal. 107/1 Challenge *Hot Water Bottles, pure rubber. 1897 Allbutt Syst. Med. III. 331 A hot-water bottle..placed at his feet. 1900 J. Vaizey About Peggy Saville xxv. 229 I'd have a fire and an india-rubber hot-water bottle, and I'd lie and sleep. 1926–7 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 151/1 Aluminium hot water bottles. Round 9 in. 1932 D. C. Minter Mod. Needlecraft 248/1 Hot-water bottle cover..cut to fit. 1946 G. Mikes How to be an Alien 25 Continental people have sex life; the English have hot-water bottles. 1972 S. Hynes Edwardian Occasions 169 The narrative is slacker and more trivial, begins to take note of the hot-water bottle and the nine o'clock news. |
| 1842 Trans. Hort. Soc. II. 435 All the experience obtained at the Garden goes to demonstrate the great inferiority of flues to *hot water pipes as a mode of heating. 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. (1853) xxviii. 274 The hot-water pipes that trail themselves all over the house..fail to supply the fires' deficiencies. 1912 Beerbohm Christmas Garland 26 The faint yet heavy fragrance exhaled from the hot-water pipes. 1973 G. Butler Coffin for Pandora v. 106 The luxurious ways of Sarsen House kept all the rooms warm with hot-water pipes. |
† 2. hot waters: ardent spirits, spirituous liquors.
| 1643 Let. 28 Oct. in Clarendon Hist. Reb. vii. §351 Selling hot Waters. 1660–86 Ord. Chas. II, in Househ. Ord. (1790) 352 Tents, boothes..employed for tipling-houses; selling or takeing tobacco, hott waters [etc.]. |
3. fig. (from 1.) A state of ferment, trouble, or great discomfort; a ‘scrape’.
colloq.| 1537 Lisle Papers XI. 100 (P.R.O.) If they be to be had, I will have of them, or it shall cost me hot water. 1765 in Priv. Lett. Ld. Malmesbury (1870) I. 125 We are kept, to use the modern phrase, in hot water. 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast xiii. 32 This poor fellow was always getting into hot water. 1857 Kingsley Two Y. Ago i, In everlasting hot water, as the most incorrigible scapegrace for ten miles round. |