hot-water bag
- noun
- /ˈhɑtˌwɔtər bæg/
- US
:
bolsa de agua caliente
- In winter, many people use a hot-water bag to help warm their beds before sleeping.
Examples
-
He could see the English salesgirl cracking up over a drink with her boyfriend after work, relating the incident of the old man who came in with his mistress or wife half his age, asking for a hot water bag, probably for his arthritic legs.
Fiction book (2000) -
I'll just get a hot water bag and that'll help.
Fiction book (2000) -
" It's just the hot water bag.
Fiction book (2000) -
Vaguely, and against his will, he recalls that she had asked him to bring her a hot water bag from London on his last European trip.
Fiction book (2000) -
She filled the hot-water bag with hot water to keep warm during the cold night.
-
After a long day, he relaxed on the couch with a hot-water bag on his sore back.
Synonyms
6
2.7
A container filled with hot water to warm a bed or soothe a part of the body
1
8.2
A small heated pad used to keep you warm or ease pain
An electric pad that warms parts of your body to ease pain
How Warm
Surface Forms
Morphology
hot-water + bag
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from the constituents 'hot' + 'water' + 'bag' — a bag that holds hot water for warming. This is a straightforward compositional noun (cf. 'hot-water bottle'/'water bottle') and follows common cross-linguistic logic, so a B1 learner who knows the parts would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Hot-water bag shows a simple picture: a bag you fill with hot water, close with a stopper, and put on your feet or stomach to warm you or ease pain. So the name now means a container used 'to warm a bed' or 'to soothe parts of the body'.