hissing hot

English

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Adjective

hissing hot (not comparable)

1. (idiomatic, dated) Very hot.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

     And in the height of this bath, when I was more than half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like a horse-shoe; think of that,—hissing hot,—think of that, Master Brook.

   • 1792, Hannah Cowley, A Day in Turkey: or, The Russian Slaves, London: G.G.J. & J. Robinson, Act II, p. 30,^[1]

     […] a hissing hot fever laid hold of him; and the doctors, with all their rank and file of phials and bolusses, could hardly drive him out of his veins.

   • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the page number)”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC:

     Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) hissing hot […]

   • 1904, Justin Huntly McCarthy, chapter 1, in The Lady of Loyalty House‎^[2], New York: Harper, page 10:

     When a man has lived in such hissing hot places that he is fain to spend his life under cover, he is glad to keep abroad in this green English sweetness.

   • 1954, Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood, London: J.M. Dent, published 1962, page 32:

     Mrs Willy Nilly full of tea to her double-chinned brim broods and bubbles over her coven of kettles on the hissing hot range always ready to steam open the mail.

Synonyms

• piping hot
• searing hot
• smoking hot