hellstorm
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: hellstorms
Etymology: From hell + storm.
Senses: examples: text: They marched up through the open field under the hellstorm of shells and bullets from the Spanish.
ref: 1899, Oscar King Davis, Our Conquests in the Pacific, New York, N.Y.: Frederick A. Stokes Company, page 178:
text: With the Athalar magic to restore her life, she could weather the hellstorm of Synalon’s deathbolts.
ref: 1980, Robert E[dward] Vardeman, Victor Milán, The Sundered Realm, Playboy Paperbacks, published 1981, →ISBN, pages 155–156:
text: Thus, when, through the constant fear of obliteration of existence, the psyche is left with mere existence itself, then the psyche is not only cleansed, but all psyches that have weathered the hellstorm of terror are left with the same thing – mere (general) existence.
ref: 1982, Tom Darby, The Feast: Meditations on Politics and Time, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 57:
text: Without hesitation, the commandos triggered their assault rifles and light machine guns. Hemmed in by the circle of Soviet executioners, the yaks cried out in terror and agony as lead hellstorms of 7.62mm lead marched along their hides.
ref: 1990, Dan Schmidt, Red Firestorm (Eagle Force #4), Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 72:
text: The invasions of Guadalcanal and Tarawa were hellstorms of bayonet-in-the-gut fighting—and America’s first steps to Tokyo.
ref: 1993 October, Sid Moody, “The Solomons: Toehold to Victory”, in The American Legion, volume 135, number 4, page 18:
text: Blowing flame, the automatic shotguns roared louder than thunder, spraying a hellstorm of lead pellets that killed half a dozen people inside the restaurant and blew off chunks of the tabletop.
ref: 2002, Deep Rampage (Stony Man), Gold Eagle Books, →ISBN, page 171:
text: Twin hellstorms of orange energy erupted from the Gagarin’s forward torpedo launchers, followed almost immediately by a second pair.
ref: 2002, Dayton Ward, In the Name of Honor, Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 6:
text: ROM's first track sounded a bit (dare I say) Epi-Fat-ish but come back strong with 2 hellstorms of Japanese hardcore guitar fury.
ref: 2003 spring, Short Fast + Loud, number 9, page 59, column 3:
text: […] it was the sudden introduction to the continual hellstorm of noise that shook the world around her, the world she had fallen into: the sound of a world blowing itself apart.
ref: 2007, Charlie Fletcher, Ironhand, Hodder Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 186:
text: I was there when the mighty god-machines of the Legio Argentum, denied entrance to the gate also, had to stride through the acid hellstorms of Lesser Damantyne.
ref: 2011, Rob Sanders, “The Iron Within”, in Christian Dunn, editor, Age of Darkness (The Horus Heresy), Black Library, →ISBN, pages 331–332:
text: He was about to discharge a hellstorm of buckshot into her leathery little face when she pushed the barrel away.
ref: 2013, Bill Yenne, The Fire of Greed, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 139:
text: A freshly minted English major, I cooked three days a week at a German-American diner on Park Rapids’ Main Street, working the early breakfast shift, which on Sunday mornings was the hellstorm of brunch—schnitzels frying next to pancakes sitting next to spitting onions on the greasy griddle—and on weekdays a pretty mellow business of feeding the regulars.
ref: 2013, Amy Thielen, The New Midwestern Table, New York, N.Y.: Clarkson Potter, →ISBN, page 9:
text: Such maneuvers, if carried out both at high velocity and with a high degree of randomness, could prevent the enemy from getting a solid target lock—and that meant precious extra seconds of survival in the hellstorm of close fighter combat.
ref: 2014, Ian Douglas [pseudonym; William H. Keith, Jr.], Dark Matter (Star Carrier; book five), Harper Voyager, →ISBN, page 121:
text: She blinked rapidly, trying to figure out what had just happened. If she was still standing upright. If the world around them still existed, or had been consumed in a fiery hellstorm of doom.
ref: 2014, Maisey Yates, Unbroken, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Sensation, →ISBN, page 149:
text: Eggsy knew he had to think fast before the guards came to their senses and unleashed a hellstorm of machine-gun fire.
ref: 2017, Tim Waggoner, Kingsman: The Golden Circle: The Official Movie Novelization, Titan Books, →ISBN, page 226:
text: At the same time, it made me desperate to get to Ember. To get us all out of here and find someplace safe before the world exploded in a hellstorm of dragonfire.
ref: 2017, Julie Kagawa, Legion, HQ, →ISBN, page 210:
text: Pulling him off the detail and replacing him with another officer would result in a hellstorm of controversy and second-guessing about preferential treatment of her fiancé.
ref: 2017, C[harles] J[ames] Box, Paradise Valley, Head of Zeus, →ISBN, page 34:
text: The Astra Militarum achieve their victories through hellstorms of firepower, grinding attrition and sheer dogged determination.
ref: 2017, Warhammer 40,000, 8th edition, page 68:
text: Even a hint of pushback on anything Carey does or says brings a hellstorm of vitriol at anyone who dares attempt it.
ref: 2022, Dmitry Samarov, Paint by Numbers, Chicago, Ill.: Pictures&Blather, →ISBN, page 91:
glosses: A hellish onslaught.