hotline

[hot-lahyn]

noun

1. Also hot line a direct telecommunications link enabling immediate communication between heads of state in an international crisis.

   the hotline between Washington and Moscow.

2. Also hot line a telephone service enabling people to talk confidentially with someone about a personal problem or crisis.

   The protective services system is anchored by a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week emergency hotline.

3. Also hot line a telephone line providing customers or clients with direct access to a company or professional service.

   If you need assistance, feel free to chat with us through our online auto parts website or give our hotline a call.

4. Chiefly Canadian.,  a radio program to which listeners can phone in comments or questions.

   The radio hotline features advice and insight from a range of bank spokespeople during tax season.

adjective

1. Chiefly Canadian.,  of or relating to a radio program to which listeners can phone in comments or questions.

hotline

/ ˈhɒtˌlaɪn /

noun

1. a direct telephone, teletype, or other communications link between heads of government, for emergency use

2. any such direct line kept for urgent use

Word History and Origins

Origin of hotline¹

First recorded in 1950–55; hot + line ¹

Example Sentences

Antonio Gutierrez, strategic coordinator for Organized Communities Against Deportations Chicago, said that members of the grassroots immigrant advocacy organization are serving as responders on a hotline launched by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Family Support Network.

From Salon

The hotline has been receiving between 200 and 400 calls per day from people reporting ICE raids and sightings, or detentions of loved ones — up from the one to five calls received per month in previous years, Gutierrez said.

From Salon

Under the bill, chatbot operators would have to have procedures to prevent the production of suicide or self-harm content and put in guardrails, such as referring users to a suicide hotline or crisis text line.

From Los Angeles Times

In early September, Sheridan called an Army Corps hotline dedicated to handling questions and concerns about the federal cleanup, but didn’t get answers.

From Los Angeles Times

"It's incredibly heartbreaking to be in this country and watch this unfold. WFP has a hotline. We've had to retrain our call operators because we're getting a much higher proportion of calls from women threatening suicide because they're desperate and they just don't know how to feed their children any more," says WFP's John Aylieff.

From BBC