A: I ran into Linda on the street last week, and it seems like she’s going through a tough time.

B: After two divorces, she’s a hard-drinking hot mess who scavenges the streets for castoff furniture and clothing that she spruces up and sometimes sells.

Note:

This informal term refers to “something or someone that is emphatically a mess.” The phrase “hot mess” didn’t always describe a person or a situation. The original use was actually culinary. In the early 1800s, a hot mess was a warm meal, especially a thick and sticky one. From there, its meaning expanded to messy situations outside the cafeteria. By the 1900s, we were describing any chaotic situation and any confusing or disordered person or thing as a hot mess.