I. ˈ ̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷ noun
Etymology: hot (I) + house
1. obsolete : turkish bath
2. obsolete : brothel
3. : a room or building kept heated for drying something (as green pottery)
4. : a greenhouse maintained at a high temperature for the culture of tender or tropical plants and other plants (as cucumbers and tomatoes) requiring such a temperature
5. : sweat house 1
6. : hotbed 2
the prose is a hothouse of clichés — New Yorker
the great city is … a hothouse of decadence and of every perversion — François Bondy
II. adjective
1. : grown in a hothouse : artificially cultivated
hothouse grapes
2. : having the qualities of a plant raised in a hothouse : lacking normal resistance to cold or adversity : soft , delicate , decadent
hothouse voluptuousness
her father … was a brittle, hothouse sort of creature — Frederick Prokosch