hotline

noun

hot·​line ˈhät-ˌlīn 

variants or less commonly hot line

plural hotlines also hot lines

1

: a usually toll-free telephone service available to the public or to a group of people for some specific purpose

a suicide prevention hotline

His take reached a total of more than $10,000, but the scam was undone when an alert co-worker noticed it and phoned an employee-theft hotline to report it.

—David J. Solomon

2

: a direct telephone line in constant operational readiness so as to facilitate immediate communication

John Sullivan told the independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta that an emergency hotline between Washington and Moscow, set up in the Cold War … , was still in existence.

—Reuters.com

When the Milwaukee Bucks made the emotional decision not to take the court for Game 5 of the playoffs, there was a hotline between the locker room and the NBPA [National Basketball Players Association], with [NBPA head Michele] Roberts counselling the players on the other end of that line.

—Don Riddell

Examples of hotline in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Between the spring and the summer of 2020, the 311 hotline was flooded with complaints about trash, from all five boroughs. —Eric Lach, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2024

During his presidency, Coleman pledged to make attorneys available pro bono to assist victims of discrimination, joining state officials at the announcement of a hotline to report hate crimes. —Emily Alpert Reyes, Los Angeles Times, 6 Apr. 2024

Anyone with information about this case or other suspicious fires is asked to call the arson hotline at 800-468-4408. —Ishani Desai, Sacramento Bee, 5 Apr. 2024

As Meg Bernhard reports for Hazlitt, the project emerged out of deep pain: not long after college a close friend took his own life, Warren began volunteering at a suicide prevention hotline. —Longreads, 5 Apr. 2024

Robins added that DraftKings’ advertisements list resources in its fine print, such as a help hotline for gambling addiction. —Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2024

The same report outlined how a 70% drop in federal funding in 2024 would stress shelters in staying open, keeping hotlines staffed and having advocates available to help victims. —Drake Bentley, Journal Sentinel, 5 Apr. 2024

Elliott is also proposing a new hotline and website where whistleblowers could make complaints. —David Garrick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2024

Anyone with information about the shooting may call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS. —Nathan Pilling, Kansas City Star, 29 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1954, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

hotline

noun

hot·​line ˈhät-ˌlīn 

: a telephone line for direct emergency use (as between heads of governments or to a counseling service)

Medical Definition

hotline

noun

hot·​line

variants also hot line

ˈhät-ˌlīn 

: a usually toll-free telephone service available to the public for some specific purpose (as to receive advice or information about a particular subject or to talk confidentially about personal problems to a sympathetic listener)

a poison control hotline

suicide prevention hotlines