in hot pursuit

prepositional phrase

Pursuing someone in order to apprehend them, especially across a border.

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Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. idiomaticgovernmentPursuing someone in order to apprehend them, especially across a border.

    PC Winters gunned the patrol car out of the side road where they'd been parked, bored and waiting for the end of their shift, and took off in hot pursuit.

    2011, Colin Bateman, SOS Adventure: Tusk

Origin

See hot pursuit.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

in hot pursuit. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20hot%20pursuit

MLA

“in hot pursuit.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20hot%20pursuit. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “in hot pursuit,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/in%20hot%20pursuit.

Source: in hot pursuit on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.