piping hot
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
extremely hot, often too hot to handle
Literally: hot from a pipe
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Add the shelled eggs to the pan, stir well and continue to heat for 2–3min, until the eggs are piping hot — do not overcook, otherwise they will become rubbery.
Chez Gerard boasts that it does the best steak frites in town — and judging by the quality of their thin, crispy and piping hot chips, I'd be inclined to believe them.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
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 “piping hot” mean?
extremely hot, often too hot to handle Literally: hot from a pipe
Is “piping hot” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.