hot pants

See also: hotpants, Hotpants, and Hot Pants

English

Hot pants worn by women

Etymology

From the 1970s.

Noun

hot pants pl (plural only)

1. Very brief, tight shorts mainly worn by women and girls.

   Synonym: booty shorts

   Her hot pants were so short, I could see her butt cheeks.

2. (slang) A lustful attraction toward somebody.
   • 2014, Stanley Ellin, The Dark Fantastic:

     And if any fat little old lady with gray hair could have hot pants, she's got hot pants for you.

Descendants

• → German: Hotpants, → heiße Höschen (calque)

Translations

small shorts

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 熱褲／热裤 (jit⁶ fu³)

  Mandarin: 熱褲／热裤 (zh) (rèkù)

• Finnish: mikrosortsit, mikroshortsit
• French: mini-short (fr) m micro-short (fr) m
• German: Hotpants (de) pl, heiße Höschen n pl
• Jamaican Creole: batty rider
• Japanese: ホットパンツ (hotto pantsu)
• Korean: 핫팬츠 (ko) (hatpaencheu)

Noun

hot pants (plural hot pants)

1. (now rare) Someone (especially a woman) with a high sexual appetite.
   • 1939, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, Penguin, published 2011, page 89:

     ‘That goddamned little hot pants!’ he shouted.

   • 2012, Robert B. Parker, Hush Money‎^[1], page 112:

     “I don’t wish to hurt your feelings, but KC has always been something of a hot pants.”
     “Damn,” I said, “I thought maybe you had told her what a Roscoe I was in bed.”

References

• Tony Thorne (2014) “hot pants”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “hot pants n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang