hot minute

English

Alternative forms

• red-hot minute

Noun

hot minute (plural hot minutes)

1. An extremely short period of time; moment.
   • 2000, Eric Jerome Dickey, Cheaters, →ISBN:

     It didn't take but a hot minute to find out what squadron Craig was with.

   • 2012, Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, →ISBN:

     She didn't trust me for a hot minute, but she trusted her perfect eldest child.

   • 2016, Shéa MacLeod, The Corpse in the Cabana

     Too bad he considered me a suspect, because I'd be all over that in a hot minute. Okay, probably not. But I'd flirt a lot.

   • 2017, Julie Ann Walker, Hot Pursuit, →ISBN:

     Not for a hot minute did she think it changed her inability to have lasting love.

2. An unspecified period of time; while.
   • 2010, Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy, →ISBN, page 138:

     Whatever happened to that guy Michael you dated for a hot minute way back in the stone age?

   • 2011, Victor LaValle, Big Machine, →ISBN:

     We might be in Montana—but, no, that's wrong. We spent time in Montana a month ago. After a few days we have to move. We settled in Oregon for a hot minute, figured it was a good place for disappearing, but one morning we woke to find footprints in the gravel around our rented cabin.

   • 2012, Cholly Atkins & ‎Jacqui Malone, Class Act: The Jazz Life of Choreographer Cholly Atkins, →ISBN, page 89:

     Still, it was always nice to run into each other in the supermarkets or restaurants and talk for a hot minute.

   • 2013, Terry McMillan, Who Asked You?, →ISBN, page 71:

     At least Dexter can spell and sounds like he went to a junior college for a hot minute.

3. A long period of time.
   • 2013, Caroline McGill, A Dollar Outta Fifteen Cent, →ISBN, page 209:

     She decided to pop up on her big brother because it had been a hot minute since she'd seen him.

Usage notes

The "long time" meaning apparently postdates the "short time" meaning by some time. The confusion generated by these antonymous meanings is slightly mitigated by the fact that "hot minute" is generally used in situations where the specific amount of time is unimportant.

References

• “hot minute”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.