in the hot seat

prepositional phrase

Under pressure to perform; under scrutiny; at the center of attention.

“They really put me in the hot seat during that last job interview. They asked lots of tough questions.”

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Meanings

prepositional phrase

alternative on the hot seat

  1. idiomaticUnder pressure to perform; under scrutiny; at the center of attention.

    They really put me in the hot seat during that last job interview. They asked lots of tough questions.

    1 more example

    Mr. Tenev, 33, is now in the hot seat again after Robinhood abruptly curtailed its customers’ trading last week amid a frenzy in stocks such as GameStop, which were driven sky high by an army of online investors.

    2021 February 2, Nathaniel Popper, Kellen Browning, Erin Griffith, “Robinhood’s C.E.O. Is in the Hot Seat”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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