From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englisha hotbed of somethinga hotbed of somethingLOT/LARGE NUMBER OR AMOUNTa place where a lot of a particular type of activity, especially bad or violent activity, happens the university was a hotbed of radical protest → hotbed
Examples from the Corpus
a hotbed of something• The troubled province is a hotbed of ethnic violence.• The Ariadne, if I may put it that way, is a hotbed of super-sensitivity.• Vasey's, like any other establishment, was a hotbed of gossip.• Since the province was a hotbed of gentry resistance to the emancipation, confrontation looked a real possibility. 