It’s hot! Don’t touch!

Kids are not aware of the dangers in their surroundings most of the time.  How often do you have to warn your little ones about a hot object and restrain them from touching it?  Time and again, I hear people say “烧! 不要碰!”

“烧”(shāo) is a verb. It means to heat up or to burn.  It is not an adjective to describe the hotness of an object.  Eg. 烧一壶水, or 烧水, but here it means boil the water, not hot water.

When we say “烧”in this context，we actually mean“热” (rè)  or “烫” (tàng). “热”describes an object that is hot, and “烫”when it’s scalding hot.
Eg. 这杯水是热的 (vs 这杯水是冷的)
       这杯茶很烫，要慢慢喝。

Extracted from Times Advanced Chinese Dictionary (时代高级汉语词典):

烧：【解释】动。燃烧，使燃烧，着火；用火加热，使物体起变化。

热：【解释】形。温度高。

烫：【解释】形。物体温度高。