Meaning & use
hotboxing
Last updated
“hotboxing” is a form of “hotbox”.
Meanings
noununcountableslanginformal
The practice of smoking cannabis in a closed space, such as a car or small room, so that smoke fills the air.
Grammar: Uncountable: hotboxing is common in films.
Patterns
- go hotboxing
- hotboxing in something
Hotboxing a closed car is a common scene in comedies.
The college warned students about hotboxing in dorm rooms.
Neighbors complained about the smell from hotboxing.
verbtransitive or intransitiveslanginformal
Smoking cannabis in a closed space so that the smoke builds up.
Grammar: Can take a place as object: hotboxing the car.
Patterns
- hotbox something
- be hotboxing
They were hotboxing the van when the police knocked.
He admitted to hotboxing the bathroom in college.
The characters in the movie spend a scene hotboxing a tiny closet.
Word forms
| base form | hotbox |
|---|---|
| third person singular | hotboxes |
| past tense | hotboxed |
| -ing form | hotboxing |
Common combinations
- hotbox a car
- In the film they hotbox a car.
- hotboxing session
- The hotboxing session left the room smoky.
- caught hotboxing
- Two students were caught hotboxing.
- hotbox the room
- They hotboxed the room with the windows shut.
Synonyms and how they differ
- smoking
- Smoking is the general word for any use, while hotboxing needs a closed space.
- getting high
- Getting high names the effect, not the closed-space method of hotboxing.
- puffing
- Puffing is general and informal, with no sense of an enclosed space.
Word family
- hotbox verb
- to smoke in a closed space
- hotbox noun
- the closed space itself
- hotboxed adjective
- filled with smoke
- smoke noun
- the cloud from burning material
Commonly confused: hotboxing or hot box?
hotboxing vs hot box
A hot box is also a railway part that overheats, an unrelated use of the two words.
Practice
What does hotboxing involve?
Choose one answer.
Hotboxing is smoking cannabis in an enclosed space so smoke builds up. The other options use the words literally and miss the slang.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hotboxing”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.