hotbed

[hot-bed]

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noun

a bottomless, boxlike, usually glass-covered structure and the bed of earth it covers, heated typically by fermenting manure or electrical cables, for growing plants out of season.

a place or environment favoring rapid growth or spread, especially of something disliked or unwanted: a hotbed of disease.

Slang. a bed shared by two or more persons in shifts, each sleeping in it for or at a designated time and then vacating it for the next occupant.

verb (used without object), hot·bed·ded, hot·bed·ding.

Slang. to share a bed in shifts, so that it is always occupied.

Origin of hotbed

First recorded in 1620–30; hot + bed

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for hotbed

Contemporary Examples of hotbed

Baseball has long been the most popular sport in Cuba and the island has long been a hotbed of baseball talent.
Is Major League Baseball Ready For Cuba’s Players?
Ben Jacobs
December 19, 2014
In the early 1960s Cambridge University was a hotbed of cultural and social insurrection.
Why Can’t Movies Capture Genius?
Clive Irving
December 14, 2014
It is also overwhelmingly pro-regime, and since the start of Syrian unrest the region has become a hotbed of pro-Assad activity.
Welcome to Assadville, USA
Christopher Moraff
November 11, 2014
The Gorge has always been a hotbed of radicalism and arms smuggling, but now it is fast becoming a shahid factory.
The Secret Life of an ISIS Warlord
Will Cathcart, Vazha Tavberidze, Nino Burchuladze
October 27, 2014
Ipanema has long been the hotbed of beach apparel, launching looks like the tanga and the g-string.
The Girl From Ipanema Is Not Alone: Rio’s Famous Beach Is A Rich, Cultural Kaleidoscope
Brandon Presser
June 23, 2014

Historical Examples of hotbed

Sects were springing up all over England as weeds in a hotbed.
Bunyan
James Anthony Froude
If there is no greenhouse, a hotbed is an important help in the garden.
Agriculture for Beginners
Charles William Burkett
Industry—and the engineer is the backbone of industry—is a hotbed of competition.
Opportunities in Engineering
Charles M. Horton
It is a hotbed of heathen enthusiasm and of blinded devotion.
A Tour of the Missions
Augustus Hopkins Strong
A corrupt, unregenerate heart, which is a hotbed and nursery of the devil.
Sanctification
J. W. Byers

British Dictionary definitions for hotbed

hotbed

noun

a glass-covered bed of soil, usually heated by fermenting material, used for propagating plants, forcing early vegetables, etc

a place offering ideal conditions for the growth of an idea, activity, etc, esp one considered bada hotbed of insurrection

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hotbed

1620s, from hot + bed (n.); originally "bed of earth heated by fermenting manure for forcing growing plants;" generalized sense of "place that fosters rapid growth" is from 1768.