hotly

comparative more hotly · superlative most hotly

1. With great amounts of heat.
2. In a heated manner; intensely or vehemently.

   "You are really intolerable!" said I, hotly.

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

   3 more examples

   In my excitement I had not been taking notice of other things, and I looked up to see the lord of the harem charging down upon me. Again I fled to the boat, hotly pursued; but this time Maud made no suggestion of turning back.

   1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

   It is interesting that this argument should have come up at this moment," Mr. Smith adds, "when the subject is being debated so hotly in the field of the petrol-driven internal combustion engine."

   1951 September, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 621

   The prospective staff redundancy that would ensue from adoption of the plan is, of course, one of the hotly controversial aspects of the proposals and the chief issue on which a three-day N.U.R. strike was threatened for May 14-16, a few days after this issue went to press.

   1963 June, “News and Comment: The redundancy problem”, in Modern Railways, pages 362–363