hotshot

noun

hot·shot ˈhät-ˌshät

plural hotshots

Synonyms of hotshot next

: a talented or successful person who often has a showy or flashy manner

There are, of course, people here who believe that most Washington hotshots, journalistic as well as governmental, are fatly overpaid already …—

Meg Greenfield

… some young hotshots are leaving mutual funds … to set up hedge funds at a rate of more than one a day.—

Mitchell Pacelle

—often used before another noun

a hotshot actorThese days, the only teasing that Leinart gets is from friends who tell him that he doesn't take advantage of being a hotshot college quarterback.—

Phil Taylor

: a person trained to fight forest fires especially in remote areas

As a hotshot, his job was to rappel from helicopters into wildfires across the country.—

Anton L. Delgado and Dustin Patar

—often used before another noun

[Firefighter Zachary] Resnick said his hotshot crew used to get a break fighting wildfires from late November to late spring. Now, they're on duty nearly year-round.—

Lilia Luciano

: a fast freight train

First is a hotshot, LADAF, an automobile and trailer train from Los Angeles to Dallas ("F" stands for Forwarder). Its route through Texas is roundabout, so LADAF has to really move, and move it does …—

Fred W. Frailey

Example Sentences

The company has hired a couple of young hotshots to revamp its advertising campaign. That guy thinks he's a real hotshot.

Recent Examples on the Web The play follows a family of sisters, two of whom spent most of their life caring for their parents with dementia, and one who returns home after becoming a big movie star with a hotshot boyfriend. —

Steven Vargas, Los Angeles Times, 28 June 2023 Von Kral also presented each family with multiple portraits of their hotshot to take home with them. —

Lacey Latch, The Arizona Republic, 28 June 2023 Hanford and its company town were part of the top-secret Manhattan Project, which Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, opening in a few weeks, will examine from the perspective of the nuclear program’s hotshots, its lead scientists and political power players. —

Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 June 2023 The Cornhuskers have tried a number of coaches in the past 25 years: the longtime assistant (Frank Solich), the NFL retread (Bill Callahan), the fiery defensive coordinator (Bo Pelini), the calming grandfather (Mike Riley) and the can't-miss local hotshot (Frost). —

Paul Myerberg, USA TODAY, 8 Nov. 2021 Mare has put off calling in outside help on that case, but when a teenage girl turns up dead in a creek, her boss forces her into a partnership with Colin Zabel (Evan Peters), a young hotshot from the county police who can in theory look at things with more objectivity. —

Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 13 Apr. 2021 Jodie Comer, alone onstage as a hotshot barrister in Prima Facie, almost never stops talking. —

Vulture, 23 Apr. 2023 The Hollywood hotshots scooped up the struggling fifth-division club together for £2 million (about $2.5 million) and since then have invested in rebuilding the team’s roster and reviving the local community. —

Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 10 Apr. 2023 As my Times colleague Matt Hamilton noted, this guilty verdict against Ridley-Thomas is the most high-profile in a series of them, all dealt by a team of hotshot public corruption prosecutors in the local U.S. attorney’s office. —

Erika D. Smith, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hotshot.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.