Meanings
plural hot pencils
- slanggovernmentA police officer who writes a high volume of traffic tickets.
He was a hot pencil who kept CHP brass happy by writing more tickets than anybody. Secretly, he was using his highly polished Badge 861 1 to stalk young women for weird, sexually tinged power games.
2004, San Diego Magazine, page 602 more examples
From what he could ascertain, he was at least as good or even better as a police detective and as a partner than Charga ever was or could ever be. “he was more than a hot pencil when he was in uniform.” Dunne continued, “Did you know ...
2011, Joseph "Champagne Joe" Militello, Canister Of Evil, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 34Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct Tom Barker. about the same time as the police. ... As is common in police agencies, his fellow officers were aware of his bizarre antics. ... Known as “hot pencil,” he averaged 250 tickets a month.
2020, Tom Barker, Aggressors in Blue: Exposing Police Sexual Misconduct, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 104
Origin
A police officer uses a pencil to write tickets, which would get warm if used a lot due to friction.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
hot pencil. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hot%20pencil
“hot pencil.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hot%20pencil. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hot pencil,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hot%20pencil.
Source: hot pencil on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.