on the spot

1. 1.

   without delay or immediately

   “we hired her on the spot”

   “thought they were going to shoot us down on the spot”
2. 2.

   in a difficult situation

   “that question really put him on the spot”
3. 3.

   at the place in question; there

   “they were on the spot when it happened”

   “it had to be decided by the man on the spot”

Questions about on the spot

What does on the spot mean?

on the spot means "without delay or immediately". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is on the spot a common word?

on the spot is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.