pave the road to hell

verb

To lead to a disaster by acting with good intentions.

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Meanings

verbpave the road to hell (third-person singular simple present paves the road to hell, present participle paving the road to hell, simple past and past participle paved the road to hell)

present singular third person paves the road to hell · participle present paving the road to hell · participle past paved the road to hell · past paved the road to hell

  1. idiomaticTo lead to a disaster by acting with good intentions.

    In the other direction, treatments that were decried in their time as paving the road to hell, including vaccination, transfusions, anesthesia, artificial insemination, organ transplants, and in-vitro fertilization, have become unexceptional boons to human well-being.

    2015 August 1, Steven Pinker, “The moral imperative for bioethics”, in The Boston Globe, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2015

Origin

From the proverb the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pave the road to hell. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pave%20the%20road%20to%20hell

MLA

“pave the road to hell.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pave%20the%20road%20to%20hell. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pave the road to hell,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pave%20the%20road%20to%20hell.

Source: pave the road to hell on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.