hell
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: hĕl
ipa: /hɛl/
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: hells
form: Hell
form: hel
form: helle
Etymology: From Middle English helle, from Old English hell, from Proto-West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō (“concealed place, netherworld”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, conceal, save”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälle (“hell”), West Frisian hel (“hell”), Dutch hel (“hell”), German Low German Hell (“hell”), German Hölle (“hell”), Norwegian helvete (“hell”), Icelandic hel (“the abode of the dead, death”). Also related to the Hel of Germanic mythology. See also hele.
Senses: examples: text: My new boss is making my job a hell.
text: I went through hell to get home today.
raw_tags: computer programming
text: callback hell; <table> hell; <div> hell
text: 1879, General William T. Sherman, commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy
There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.
text: Why, am I dying? / Kill, have no fear / Lie, live off lying / Hell, hell is here
ref: 1986, “Disposable Heroes”, in Metallica (music), Master of Puppets:
text: So how do the scientists cope with their work being ignored for decades, and living in a world their findings indicate is on a “highway to hell”?.
ref: 2024 May 8, Damian Carrington, “‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair. World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, in The Guardian, UK:
glosses: A place or situation of great suffering in life.
examples: text: Here’s five-and-twenty for you. Don’t be losing it at the hells now.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
text: a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless
ref: 1877, William Black, Green Pastures and Piccadilly:
text: But there was also about him an indescribable air which no mechanic could have acquired in the practice of his handicraft however dishonestly exercised: [...] the air of moral nihilism common to keepers of gambling hells and disorderly houses; [...]
ref: 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 1907, →OCLC, page 15:
glosses: A place for gambling.
examples: text: You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.
glosses: An extremely hot place.
examples: text: She's got her arms down to her side, defiant. But just for the hell of it, she leans into him, wraps her arms around his neck, puts her head on his shoulder, and hangs on tight.
ref: 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 321:
text: I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.
text: What the hell is wrong with you?!
text: He says he’s going home early? Like hell he is.
glosses: Used as an intensifier in phrases grammatically requiring a noun.
examples: text: This sturdy Squire, he had, as well
As the bold Trojan Knight, seen Hell.
ref: 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:
glosses: A place into which a tailor throws shreds, or a printer discards broken type.
glosses: In certain games of chase, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.
examples: text: That steep staircase is hell on my knees.
glosses: Something extremely painful or harmful (to)
Derived terms: all hell breaks loose
as all hell
as hell
bastard operator from hell
behell
bleeding hell
bloody hell
blooming hell
bullet hell
burn in hell
by hell
callback hell
catch hell
cat's chance in hell
chicken from hell
Chinaman's chance in hell
chuffing hell
come hell or high water
dammit all to hell
dammit to hell
damn you all to hell
dependency hell
development hell
DLL hell
Elo hell
for the hell of it
forty minutes of hell
fresh hell
fucking hell
gambling hell
gate of hell
give someone hell
go through hell
go to hell
go-to-hell
Harrowing of Hell
harrowing of hell
harrying of hell
hella
hellacious
hellagood
hell and half of Georgia
hell and Tommy
hell around
hellban
hellbender
hell-bent
hell-bent-for-leather
hell-bent for leather
hellbilly
hellborn
hell-born
hellbound
hellbox
hellbrew
hell-brewed
hell bride
hellbroth
hellburner
hellcat
hell chicken
Hell Corner
helldesk
hell-diver
hellektro
hellfare
hell-fire
hellfire
Hellfire Club
hell-for-leather
hell for leather
hell from above
hell gate
hell has no fury like a woman scorned
hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
hell-hole
hell hole
hellhound
hell hound
hell-hound
hellhouse
hell house
hell if I care
hell if I know
hellify
hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works
hellish
hellkite
hell knows
hellman
hell mend someone
hell money
hellmouth
hell night
hell no
hell of a
hell on earth
hell on wheels
hell or high water
hell pig
hellproof
hellraiser
hell-raiser
hellraising
hell-rake
hell realm
hellride
hell-roaring
hell's bells
hellscape
hell's delight
hell ship
hellsite
Hell's Kitchen
hellsome
hellspawn
hell's teeth
hellstorm
hell strip
hellstrip
hell's yeah
hell's yes
hell to pay
hell to the naw
hell to the no
Helltown
hellward
Hellward
hellwards
hell week
hell west and crooked
helly
hell yeah
hell yes
hizzle
holy hell
hot as hell
hot hell
hound of hell
how the hell
I'm going to hell for this
in hell
in the hell
Israhell
Israhelli
JAR hell
king-hell
like a bat out of hell
like hell
like hell you say
like merry hell
living hell
match made in hell
McHell
no hell
no screaming hell
not worth hell room
oh, hell
oh my hell
pave the road to hell
personal hell
play hell with
play merry hell with
production hell
raise hell
raise unshirted hell
rake-hell
rot in hell
scare the hell out of
you in hell
silver hell
snowball in hell
snowball's chance in hell
snowflake's chance in hell
sodding hell
Solavellan Hell
the hairy hell
the hell
the hell out of
the hell with it
the hell you say
the road to hell is paved with good intentions
to hell
to hell and back
to hell and gone
to hell in a handbasket
to hell in a handcart
to hell with
until hell freezes over
war is hell
welcome to hell
what the hell
when the hell
where the hell
who the hell
why the hell