hotshot
Americanadjective
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highly successful and aggressive.
a hotshot lawyer; a hotshot account exec.
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displaying skill flamboyantly.
a hotshot ballplayer.
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moving, going, or operating without a stop; fast.
a hotshot express.
noun
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an impressively successful or skillful and often vain person.
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Railroads. an express freight train.
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a firefighter.
noun
Usage
What does hotshot mean? A hotshot is someone who’s highly talented and successful in a particular field, especially someone who’s cocky about it. Hotshot can also be used as an adjective to describe such a person. When it’s used as an adjective, it typically modifies a noun that refers to a person’s profession or position, as in hotshot programmer and hotshot quarterback. Example: I heard they brought in some hotshot lawyer to take over the case.
Etymology
Origin of hotshot
Explanation
If you're a hotshot, you're extremely good at one particular thing. A young chess hotshot might win every game within the first few moves. Hotshot is an informal word for an expert or a whiz. The math hotshot in your calculus class is probably the first person whose hand is raised to answer the teacher's question, and several colleges will no doubt try to recruit a high school basketball hotshot. While hotshot gained this meaning in the 1930s, it originally meant "reckless person," and briefly, in the 1920s, "fast train."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Those institutions were willing to lock up their dollars with hotshot managers for years, giving them authority on how to invest them.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 2, 2026
Shifting the center of mass rearward dramatically improved the Corvette’s balance and hotshot acceleration.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 18, 2025
Top Gun was a breakthrough for Kilmer, who played Iceman, the rival to Cruise's hotshot Maverick at the US Navy's academy for elite fighter pilots.
From BBC • Apr. 4, 2025
Forest Service and other hotshot crews, according to the corrections department.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 17, 2025
Some young hotshot bookie tries to unseat the runner he works for.
From "X: A Novel" by Ilyasah Shabazz
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
