hot check

From sense hot (“illegal, stolen”) – compare hot property (“stolen goods”).

hot check (plural hot checks)

1. (US, Texas) A check with non-sufficient funds (not enough money in the bank to back it up), written fraudulently.
   • 1978, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, “There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang”, in I Would Like to See You Again, Columbia Records:

     And you don’t go writing hot checks down in Mississippi,

• (check with insufficient funds, written fraudulently): bad check, bounced check, rubber check

• hot property

• chotchke