hot water

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hot water (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic, figuratively) A dangerous situation; trouble.

   Both students are in hot water from fighting.

2. (idiomatic, figuratively) Fierce criticism.

   The government's new proposal has landed them in hot water.

   • 2018 July 20, Johannes Breit, “We Banned Holocaust Deniers From Our History Subreddit. Here’s Why Facebook Should Do the Same.”, in Slate Magazine‎^[1]:

     Zuckerberg got into hot water on Wednesday when he stated that Facebook wouldn’t necessarily remove Holocaust deniers from its platform because people “get things wrong” and because it’s not always possible to understand the deniers’ intent.

   • 2025 November 12, Ian Prosser, “High maintenance levels”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 15:

     I once got myself in a bit of hot water by saying a couple of individuals in a key management/leadership role lacked competency for a senior role in the running of the railway.

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hot,‎ water.

   Alternative form: hotwater (attributive)

Translations

dangerous situation, trouble

• Catalan: problema (ca) m
• Finnish: liri (fi)
• French: peine (fr) f
• Galician: en augas turbulentas, en augas tormentosas, en problemas, ser posto a caldo
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ἀνία f (anía)

• Italian: guaio (it) m
• Latin: difficultas f
• Portuguese: problema (pt) m (can be used in the plural)
• Spanish: problema (es) m (can be used in the plural)
• Swedish: hett om öronen, vatten över huvudet

fierce criticism

• Finnish: kuraa niskaan

hot water

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 湯 / 汤 (zh) (tāng) (literary or regional), 熱水 / 热水 (zh) (rèshuǐ)

• Finnish: kuuma vesi; lämmin vesi (as utility)
• French: eau chaude f
• German: Heißwasser (de) n, Warmwasser (de) n
• Japanese: 湯 (ja) (ゆ, yu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: varmtvann n

• Russian: горя́чая вода́ f (gorjáčaja vodá)
• Swedish: varmvatten (sv) n
• Tamil: வெந்நீர் (ta) (vennīr), சுடுதண்ணீர் (ta) (cuṭutaṇṇīr), சுடுநீர் (ta) (cuṭunīr)

References

• “hot water”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.