hell gate

UK/ˈhɛl ɡeɪt/

noun

The entrance to hell, seen as an embodiment of evil.

OriginMiddle English helle gate ← Old English helleġeat →
First used 9th c.
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Meanings

hell gate1

nounhell gate (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe entrance to hell, seen as an embodiment of evil.First known use 9th c.

    Thine loves the same world that mine hates; / Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.

    c. 1825, William Blake, The Everlasting Gospel
    2 more examples

    A Tigre forth out of the wood did rise, / That with fell clawes full of fierce gourmandize, / And greedy mouth wide gaping like hell-gate, / Did runne at Pastorell her to surprize […].

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

    And now great deeds / Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, / Had not the snaky Sorceress, that sat / Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key, / Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between.

    1667, John Milton, “Book LI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

Hell Gate2

proper noun
  1. A strait in East River, New York City, New York State, United States; the narrowest part of the East River, separating Manhattan and Long Island.

Origin

hell gate · noun

  1. Old Englishhelleġeat
  2. Middle Englishhelle gate
  3. Englishhell gate

From Middle English helle gate, helle-ȝate, from Old English helleġeat, corresponding to hell + gate.

More words from Middle English, Old English

Full word history & related roots →

Hell Gate · proper noun

  1. DutchHellegat
  2. EnglishHell Gate

hell+gate * (New York City): Anglicization of the original Dutch name Dutch Hellegat, of uncertain meaning.

More words from Dutch

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

hell gate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hell%20gate

MLA

“hell gate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hell%20gate. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hell gate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hell%20gate.

Source: hell gate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.