hotshot

See also: hot shot

English

Alternative forms

• hot shot, hot-shot

Etymology

From hot +‎ shot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɒtˌʃɒt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Adjective

hotshot (comparative more hotshot, superlative most hotshot)

1. (informal) Highly skilled.

   He was a hotshot lawyer, with an astounding win-loss record.

2. (informal) Displaying talent.

   Keep up those hotshot baskets, and the scouts are sure to take notice.

Translations

highly skilled

• Finnish: huippu- (fi)
• Russian: иску́сный (ru) (iskúsnyj), уме́лый (ru) (umélyj), дарови́тый (ru) (darovítyj)

displaying talent

• Finnish: taidokas (fi)
• Russian: тала́нтливый (ru) (talántlivyj), дарови́тый (ru) (darovítyj), одарённый (ru) (odarjónnyj)

Noun

hotshot (plural hotshots)

1. (informal) Someone with exceptional skills in a certain field.

   She sure was a hotshot on the keyboard, 93 words per minute!

   • 2021 March 20, Maureen Dowd, “Old Pol, New Tricks”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Heading into 2016 and 2020, if you told the hotshots from Obamaworld that you thought Biden would be a good candidate, they would uniformly offer a look of infinite patience, tolerance and condescension and say something like, “Well, I could understand how someone would think that.”

2. A type of firefighter highly skilled in wildfire firefighting without external support, using basic tools that are backpacked in and manhandled about.
3. (US) A portable device that is used to jump-start an automobile battery, or the electrical output of such a device.
4. (US, rail transport) A fast freight train.
   • 1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam's Finest Hour, Kalmbach Publishing Co.:

     Indeed, development proceeded so rapidly thereafter that Mopac, for instance, was rebuilding a series of 10-year-old Woodard 2-8-4's into 4-8-4's by 1940 - not because they couldn't steam but because their 63-inch drivers couldn't roll the hotshots fast enough.

5. (slang) A dose of recreational drugs deliberately laced with poison.
   • 1997, Andi Rierden, The Farm: Life inside a women's prison, page 120:

     I sniffed glue, transmission fluid, gasoline, whatever drug anybody gave me, I took. […] [Y]ears ago, I was in a drug rehabilitation program and found out that my brother was killed after somebody gave him a hotshot, drugs laced with poison.

6. A lethal injection of heroin or another opiate.
   • 2006 July 6, Charlie Day & Glenn Howerton & Rob McElhenney, “Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare” (0:21 from the start), in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia‎^[2], season 2, episode 3, spoken by Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howerton):

     “You guys are being babies.” “Babies.” “Oh, we're being babies, Mac? Why don't you go work for your dad all day?” “My dad's a meth dealer.” “[Mock Crying] Oh, oh, no! My daddy's in prison!” “My daddy used to give hot shots to prostitutes. Feel sorry for me!”

Coordinate terms

• (firefighter): smokejumper

Translations

someone with exceptional skills in a certain field

• Finnish: taituri (fi), -niekka, ässä (fi)
• French: as (fr) m, champion (fr) m, bête (fr) f, machine (fr) f
• Russian: уме́лец (ru) m (umélec), уме́лица (ru) f (umélica), знато́к (ru) m (znatók), до́ка (ru) m (dóka), спец (ru) m (spec)

Verb

hotshot (third-person singular simple present hotshots, present participle hotshotting, simple past and past participle hotshotted)

1. (transitive, slang) To give (somebody) a dose of recreational drugs deliberately laced with poison.

See also

• (firefighter): Interagency hotshot crew on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Further reading

• “hotshot”, in Collins English Dictionary.