Figures maybe hot stuff (5)
I believe the answer is:
cloth
'stuff' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'figures maybe hot' is the wordplay.
'figures maybe' becomes 'clot' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hot' becomes 'h'.
'clot'+'h'='CLOTH'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cloth that I've seen before include "Gingham, say" , "Sails" , "Textiles" , "The clergy" , "Woven material" .)