hot garbage

English

Etymology

From hot (“radioactive”) +‎ garbage (“waste”). Originally a term for radioactive materials, it evolved as a descriptor for anything highly undesirable.

Noun

hot garbage (uncountable)

  1. Nuclear waste.
    • 1955 April, Rafe Gibbs, Popular Mechanics‎[1], volume 103, number 4, Hearst Magazines, page 250:
      The water is first filtered and processed to eliminate as much as possible substances that might become radioactive. After going through the reactor, it is held in basins until the radioactivity of the remaining impurities dies down and then is released. The water is still carrying some "hot garbage," but not very much.
  2. (informal) Anything that is extremely bad.
    • 2013, Brady Udall, The Lonely Polygamist‎[2], Random House, →ISBN, page 109:
      It wasn't a big deal for some people who were lucky enough to have regular-smelling feet, but Rusty had been born with foot-odor complications, which caused certain people to gag when he entered the room, or to ask him why his feet smelled like hot garbage.
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