make it hot for

Idioms

Cause trouble or discomfort for someone, as in They made it so hot for Larry that he had to resign, or The police were making it hot for shoplifters. This seemingly modern idiom was first recorded in 1618.

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.

A number of people might have wanted to kill Mrs. Bischoff: Shortly before her death she wrote to her husband that she was about to expose him and "make it hot for McLaughlin."

From Time Magazine Archive

Opponents did their best to make it hot for the law professors.

From Time Magazine Archive

The best the school could do was to make it hot for any student caught going there.

From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

I shouldn't like to be in their shoes when Mr. Scott finds it out; he'll make it hot for them!

From Harper's Round Table, July 9, 1895 by Various

There a detachment was posted with orders to make it hot for any interlopers who might try to find the sunken treasure without first consulting the MacLeans.

From The Book of Buried Treasure Being a True History of the Gold, Jewels, and Plate of Pirates, Galleons, etc., which are sought for to this day by Paine, Ralph Delahaye

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023