Idiom
piping hot
Meaning
Very hot.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The soup is piping hot, so be careful.”
“You should drink your coffee while it is piping hot.”
“Be careful because the bath water is piping hot.”
“The waiter brought the pizza to our table while it was still piping hot.”
“I had to wait a few minutes before eating because the apple pie was still piping hot from the oven.”
“The baker places the piping hot loaves of bread on the cooling rack every morning at dawn.”
“The mechanic warned me not to touch the engine parts because they were still piping hot after the long drive across the desert.”
“She served the tea piping hot, its steam rising into the cold morning air as they sat down to discuss the day.”
Examples
simple
“The soup is piping hot, so be careful.”
“You should drink your coffee while it is piping hot.”
“Be careful because the bath water is piping hot.”
contextual
“The waiter brought the pizza to our table while it was still piping hot.”
“I had to wait a few minutes before eating because the apple pie was still piping hot from the oven.”
“The baker places the piping hot loaves of bread on the cooling rack every morning at dawn.”
“The mechanic warned me not to touch the engine parts because they were still piping hot after the long drive across the desert.”
complex
“She served the tea piping hot, its steam rising into the cold morning air as they sat down to discuss the day.”
Origin
From Middle English. First attested circa second half of 14th century, from the similarity between the sizzling sound of food cooking in a frying pan and that of musical pipes, from Canterbury Tales http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2383 by Geoffrey Chaucer: :: "He singeth brokking¹ as a nightingale. / He sent her piment, mead, and spiced ale, / And wafers² piping hot out of the glede³: / And, for she was of town, he proffer'd meed." :: ¹ quavering, ² cakes, ³ coals
Key words
Related idioms
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