hot and heavy
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Sledgehammers were usually wielded by the apprentice; it was hot and heavy work.
Not until the sun comes hot and heavy on it.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29). Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “hot and heavy” mean?
Intense.
Is “hot and heavy” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.