hot on the trail
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
very close to finding or achieving something
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
rất gần với việc tìm thấy hoặc đạt được điều gì đó
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: pursuing closely
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The detectives were hot on the trail of the suspect.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “hot on the trail” mean?
very close to finding or achieving something Literally: pursuing closely
Is “hot on the trail” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.