hot-short

A blacksmith tests a hot-short piece of metal.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Brittle when hot: "hot-short" describes a metal that is brittle or prone to breaking when it is at a high temperature. This property is typically undesirable in metals used for forging or working while hot, as the material may crack or fail under stress.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The blacksmith avoided using that batch of iron because it was hot-short and would crack under the hammer. (The iron was brittle when heated, making it unsuitable for forging.)
  • Engineers tested the steel for hot-short properties before using it in high-temperature applications. (They checked if the steel became brittle when hot.)

Advanced Usage

• "Hot-shortness" (noun): the quality or state of being hot-short.

  • The hot-shortness of the alloy limited its use in welding processes. (The brittleness when hot prevented effective welding.)

• "Hot-short" as a technical term: In metallurgy, this term is specifically used to describe metals that lose ductility and become brittle at elevated temperatures, often due to impurities like sulfur or copper.

  • The presence of sulfur in the steel caused it to be hot-short, leading to cracks during rolling. (Sulfur impurities made the steel brittle when hot.)

Variants and Related Words

• Hot-shortness (noun): the property of being hot-short.

  • The hot-shortness of the material was a significant flaw. (The brittleness when hot was a major defect.)

• Cold-short (adj): brittle when cold (opposite of hot-short).

  • While this metal is hot-short, it is cold-short as well, making it difficult to work with at any temperature. (Brittle both when hot and cold.)

Synonyms

• Brittle when heated: fragile at high temperatures.
• Red-short (a synonym in metallurgy): specifically refers to brittleness when the metal is red-hot.

Related Idioms

• "Hot-short" is not commonly used in idioms, as it is a highly technical term. It appears almost exclusively in metallurgical contexts.