hot water

noun

: a difficult or dangerous situation : trouble entry 1 sense 4

—used with in or into

But this poor fellow was always getting into hot water, and if there was a wrong way of doing a thing, was sure to hit upon it.

—Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

In recent years, comedians have found themselves in hot water for making politically incorrect topics about everything from race to gender.

—James Hohmann

Examples of hot water in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Joy Behar landed in hot water when a joke about a decades-old scandal fell flat. —Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 1 May 2025

How to Make Turmeric Tea: Infusing turmeric in hot water makes for vivid, antioxidant-rich turmeric tea. —Regina C. Windsor, Mph, Rdn, Verywell Health, 30 Apr. 2025

Google's exclusive search deal with Apple is part of what got it in hot water in the first place, but the AI alliance wouldn't lock Apple into Google's tech. —Ryan Whitwam, ArsTechnica, 30 Apr. 2025

The horror movie Late Night with the Devil sparked controversy for its use of AI to make three title cards, while Oscar favorites The Brutalist and Emilia Pérez landed in hot water over their use of voice-cloning technology. —Mathew Rodriguez, Them., 29 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1840, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for hot water

• backwater
• bathwater
• blackwater
• breakwater
• deepwater
• edgewater
• feedwater
• floodwater
• freshwater
• granddaughter
• groundwater
• headwater

Kids Definition

hot water

noun

: a distressing situation : trouble

in hot water for not doing my chores