WHITE-HOT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does white-hot mean? 

• WHITE-HOT (adjective)
  The adjective WHITE-HOT has 2 senses:

1. intensely zealous or fervid

2. glowing white with heat

  Familiarity information: WHITE-HOT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHITE-HOT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Intensely zealous or fervid

Context example:

fierce white-hot loyalty

Similar:

hot (extended meanings; especially of psychological heat; marked by intensity or vehemence especially of passion or enthusiasm)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Glowing white with heat

Synonyms:

white; white-hot

Context example:

a white-hot center of the fire

Similar:

hot (used of physical heat; having a high or higher than desirable temperature or giving off heat or feeling or causing a sensation of heat or burning)

 Context examples 

His face was deathly pale, and the lines of it were hard like drawn wires; the thick eyebrows that met over the nose now seemed like a heaving bar of white-hot metal.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Driving snow, a wind that cut like a white-hot knife, and darkness had forced them to grope for a camping place.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Sunday he had intended to devote to studying for the high school examination, but the pearl-diving article lured him away, and he spent the day in the white-hot fever of re-creating the beauty and romance that burned in him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As he had placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it—had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)