too hot to hold

English

Etymology

"Hot" items are stolen goods.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

too hot to hold someone

1. (idiomatic, British) A place that has too much police activity to harbor a fugitive unnoticed.
   • 1901, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles‎^[1], page 18:

     "He made England too hot to hold him, fled to Central America, and died there in 1876 of yellow fever."