Meanings
- comparative onlyset phraseVery hot.
"Warm day out there on the highway. . . . It's only June. By the Fourth it'll be hotter than a pistol around here."
2008, Dorothy Garlock, A Place Called Rainwater, →ISBN - CanadaUScomparative onlyidiomaticExceptionally popular, productive, or marketable.
Joey Logano, who's hotter than a pistol, won the NASCAR Chase race at Kansas Sunday.
2015 October 20, Norris McDonald, “Autos: Racing Roundup”, in The Star, Canada, retrieved 10 Jan 20182 more examples
"Carl Perkins and I were in Amory, Mississippi, with Elvis. Now Elvis, of course, was hotter than a pistol. He had his second record out."
1988, Steve Turner, “Interview with Johnny Cash”, in The Man Called CASH, published 2005, →ISBNLeasing activity is frenzied throughout Manhattan. . . . "Broadway is hotter than a pistol and you have to shoehorn your way into SoHo," reports Faith H. Consolo.
1993 September 12, Claudia H. Deutsch, “Commercial Property/Analyzing Trends”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 Jan 2018Synonyms: hotter than a two dollar pistol
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveExceptionally popular, productive, or marketable.
Cite this entry
hotter than a pistol. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hotter%20than%20a%20pistol
“hotter than a pistol.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hotter%20than%20a%20pistol. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hotter than a pistol,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hotter%20than%20a%20pistol.
Source: hotter than a pistol on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.