hot minute

plural hot minutes

1. idiomaticinformalA long period of time.

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

   2013, Caroline McGill, A Dollar Outta Fifteen Cent, →ISBN, page 209

2. idiomaticinformalAn extremely short period of time; a moment.

   Very cool could easily turn into very rude in a hot minute.

   2014, Ray Mack, Underestimated: a searcher's story, →ISBN, page 163

   4 more examples

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

   2000, Eric Jerome Dickey, Cheaters, →ISBN

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

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

   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.

   2016, Shéa MacLeod, The Corpse in the Cabana

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

   2017, Julie Ann Walker, Hot Pursuit, →ISBN

   Synonyms: red-hot minute

3. idiomaticinformalAn unspecified period of time; a while.

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

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

   3 more examples

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

   2010, Terry McMillan, Getting to Happy, →ISBN, page 138

   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.

   2011, Victor LaValle, Big Machine, →ISBN

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

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