hell

alternative capitalized Hell

1. capitalizedoftenA place of torment where some or all sinners are believed to go after death and evil spirits are believed to be.

   May you rot in hell!

   5 more examples

   Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 23:14

   Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

   1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

   Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.

   1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 39

   Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke.

   1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

   'Cause this is a wasteland, my only retreat / With heaven above you, there's hell over me

   2012, “Hell Above”, in Collide with the Sky, performed by Pierce the Veil

   Synonyms: afterlife · Antonyms: heaven

plural hells · alternative capitalized Hell

1. countableexcessivefigurativelyA place or situation of great suffering in life.

   My new boss is making my job a hell.

   5 more examples

   I went through hell to get home today.

   callback hell; <table> hell; <div> hell

   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.

   Why, am I dying? / Kill, have no fear / Lie, live off lying / Hell, hell is here

   1986, “Disposable Heroes”, in Metallica (music), Master of Puppets

   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”?.

   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

2. countableA place for gambling.

   a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless

   1877, William Black, Green Pastures and Piccadilly

   3 more examples

   Here’s five-and-twenty for you. Don’t be losing it at the hells now.

   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

   There's light behind here—a hole through the wall. I believe the place is a regular swindling hell.

   1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC

   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; […]

   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

3. countablefigurativelyuncountableAn extremely hot place.

   when hell freezes over

   1 more example

   You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.

4. countablemildlyuncountablevulgarUsed as an intensifier in phrases grammatically requiring a noun.

   What the hell is wrong with you?!

   3 more examples

   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.

   1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 321

   I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.

   He says he’s going home early? Like hell he is.

5. countableobsoleteuncountableA place into which a tailor throws shreds, or a printer discards broken type.

   This sturdy Squire, he had, as well As the bold Trojan Knight, seen Hell.

   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

6. countableuncountableIn certain games of chase, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.
7. colloquialcountableuncountableusuallywith onSomething extremely painful or harmful (to)

   That steep staircase is hell on my knees.

alternative capitalized Hell

1. colloquialsometimesvulgarUsed to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.

   Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.

   1 more example

   O hell! what have we here? A carrion Death, within whose empty eye There is a written scroll! […]

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]

2. colloquialidiomaticsometimesvulgarUsed to emphasize.

   Hell yeah!

3. colloquialsometimesvulgarUsed to introduce an intensified statement following an understated one; nay; not only that, but.

   Do it, or, rest assured, there will be no more Middle Eastern crisis – hell, there will be no more Middle East!

alternative capitalized Hell

1. alternativecolloquialnot comparablepostpositionalsometimesvulgarAlternative form of the hell or like hell.

   - Oh, aren't they sweet?

   1990, Mama's Family (television sitcom), "Look Who's Breathing" (season 6, episode 18)

   1 more example

   ‘[…] I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’ ‘Thank you, sir.’ Did he hell. They never bloody did.

   1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section II, page 24

2. AustraliaNew Zealandcolloquialnot comparablesometimesvulgarVery; used to emphasize strongly.

   They're hell sexy.

   1 more example

   That was hell good!

   Synonyms: hella

present singular third person hells · participle present helling · participle past helled · past helled · alternative capitalized Hell

1. colloquialsometimesvulgarTo make hellish; to place (someone) in hell; to make (a place) into a hell.First known use 17th c.
2. colloquialsometimesvulgarTo hurry, rush.First known use 19th c.

   I had already lost thirteen points, all because she had to come helling in there at twelve, worrying me about that letter.

   1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

3. colloquialintransitivesometimesvulgarTo move quickly and loudly; to raise hell as part of motion.

   He was helling down the road with his radio blaring.

present singular third person hells · participle present helling · participle past helled · past helled · alternative capitalized Hell

1. colloquialraresometimesvulgarmetal-workingTo add luster to; to burnish (silver or gold).

   To hell gold or gilt workː take two ounces of tartar, two ounces of sulfur.. and it will give it a fine luster.

   1770, Godfrey Smith, The Laboratory: Or, School of Arts

present singular third person hells · participle present helling · participle past helled · past helled · alternative capitalized Hell

1. colloquialraresometimesvulgarTo pour.

   18th century, Josiah Relph, The Harvest; or Bashful Shepherd Gosh, the sickle went into me handː Down hell'd the bluid.

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of Hel.
2. alternativeAlternative form of Hela.
3. Alternative letter-case form of hell.

   In ancient times, Turfan was called Huochou, or Fire City, which was not inappropriate. Turfan is located in the lowest depression in Asia, just a notch above Hell.

   2016, Bill Porter, The Silk Road: Taking the Bus to Pakistan, Counterpoint, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 119

4. Any of various places so named.
   1. A village in Stjørdal municipality, Trøndelag, Norway; was the administrative center of Lånke municipality, which existed until 1962.

      Officially the Nordland Railway begins at Hell, but popularly the whole route north of Trondheim is so called.

      1957 August 28, H. A. Vallance, “By Rail to the Norwegian Arctic”, in Railway Magazine, page 571

   2. A locality in West Bay, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.
   3. A ghost town in Riverside County, California, United States.
   4. An unincorporated community in Putnam Township, Livingston County, Michigan, United States.