Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Extremely hot, as if in an oven: Used to describe weather, conditions, or surfaces that are intensely and unpleasantly hot.

Usage

• The word "baking hot" is primarily used as a predicate adjective (e.g., "The day was baking hot") or attributively before a noun (e.g., "a baking hot afternoon"). It emphasizes an oppressive, dry heat.

Examples

• Adjective:
  • After an hour in the sun, the metal car door was baking hot.
  • We decided to stay indoors during the baking hot afternoon.
  • The desert can be freezing at night and baking hot during the day.

Advanced Usage

• "to be baking hot": to be extremely hot.
  • The pavement was baking hot, so we walked on the grass.

Variants and Related Words

• Baking (adj): Can be used informally on its own to mean very hot.
  • Turn on the air conditioner; it's baking in here!
• Scorching (adj): Very hot, often causing dryness or burning.
• Sweltering (adj): Uncomfortably hot and humid.

Synonyms

• Scorching: intensely hot.
• Sweltering: oppressively hot and humid.
• Blistering: extremely hot.

Related Phrases

• Hot as an oven: An idiom with a very similar meaning to "baking hot."
  • Be careful, the sand is as hot as an oven.

Adjective

1. as hot as if in an oven