white heat

American  

noun

1. a stage of intense activity, excitement, feeling, etc..

   The sales campaign is at white heat.

2. an intense heat at which a substance glows with white light.

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white heat British  

noun

1. intense heat or a very high temperature, characterized by emission of white light

2. informal a state of intense excitement or activity

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Etymology

Origin of white heat

First recorded in 1700–10

Example Sentences

Born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, he came to power as the Sixties began to swing, promising to forge a new Britain in the "white heat of technology".

From BBC • Apr. 11, 2024

But it's worth remembering that the meeting was March 21 to 22, right in the white heat of the crisis triggered by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank only days before.

From Reuters • Apr. 13, 2023

“The uprooting of trees and hedgerows and draining of wet places. . . . This sort of white heat of progress and technology to the exclusion of nature . . . this complete determination somehow to defeat nature.”

From Washington Post • Nov. 1, 2021

Soccer has moved on from the era when greatness was forged in the white heat of World Cups and continental championships.

From New York Times • Jul. 9, 2021

It began life as a single, long, exhaustingly forceful movement, but Shostakovich, in a white heat of besieged inspiration, fleshed it out to a further three movements.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall