It is a very old expression. Hot water was used five hundred years ago to mean being in trouble.

VOA: special.2009.05.10

In other words, just because women cry more does not mean they are more likely to have a "good" cry.

VOA: special.2009.01.28

He is a leader in the sign-making industry - a real big gun,if you know what I mean.

VOA: special.2010.11.28

She may work with cowboys, but she says that does not mean she cannot make something more feminine once in a while.

VOA: special.2011.01.31

The last hurrah also can mean the last acts of a politician, before his term in office ends.

VOA: special.2010.04.11

Still,this would only mean that there are community-level outbreaks in at least one other country in a different area of the world.

VOA: special.2009.05.06

Another reason is that a small change in temperature can mean the difference between snow and rain.

VOA: special.2010.01.05

A Hamas leader said in Damascus that the call for a truce would mean a surrender.

VOA: special.2009.01.10

I mean there's a lot of agencies out there that specialize in third-world country brides, that are coming from poverty,uneducated, that kind of thing."

VOA: special.2011.02.14

He says John Fitz Gerald, a writer for a New York newspaper, used the name The Big Apple to mean New York in the nineteen twenties.

VOA: special.2009.12.27

"When I went to the South and met the kind of people who were fighting in such an unglamorous fashion, I mean, fighting to just get someplace to sit and get a sandwich.

VOA: special.2010.05.14

In the mean time, activists have presented a draft law to members of Parliament outlining their requests.

VOA: standard.2010.06.29

"I mean,there's just a thrill in seeing a disc just go and go and go."

VOA: standard.2010.08.03

That's the whole thing about being a kook,I mean, being willing to be a beginner, make a fool out of oneself once in a while."

VOA: standard.2010.08.04