Pronunciations
-
/hɛl/
Proper noun
A place of torment where some or all sinners are believed to go after death and evil spirits are believed to be.
Usage- capitalized
- often
- in many religions
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Examples
-
May you rot in hell!
Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
More examples (4)
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.
Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke.
'Cause this is a wasteland, my only retreat / With heaven above you, there's hell over me
Noun
A place or situation of great suffering in life.
Usage- Countable
- excessive
- Figurative
- Examples
-
My new boss is making my job a hell.
I went through hell to get home today.
More examples (4)
callback hell; hell; 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
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”?.
A place for gambling.
Usage- Countable
- Examples
-
Here’s five-and-twenty for you. Don’t be losing it at the hells now.
a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless
More examples (2)
There's light behind here—a hole through the wall. I believe the place is a regular swindling hell.
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; […]
An extremely hot place.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Uncountable
- Examples
-
You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.
when hell freezes over
Used as an intensifier in phrases grammatically requiring a noun.
Usage- Countable
- mildly
- Uncountable
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
More examples (1)
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.
I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.
What the hell is wrong with you?!
More examples (1)
He says he’s going home early? Like hell he is.
A place into which a tailor throws shreds, or a printer discards broken type.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
- Uncountable
- Examples
-
This sturdy Squire, he had, as well As the bold Trojan Knight, seen Hell.
In certain games of chase, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
Something extremely painful or harmful (to)
Usage- Colloquial
- Countable
- Uncountable
- usually
- with-on
- Examples
-
That steep staircase is hell on my knees.
Interjection
Used to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.
Usage- Colloquial
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.
O hell! what have we here? A carrion Death, within whose empty eye There is a written scroll! […]
Used to emphasize.
Usage- Colloquial
- idiomatic
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
Hell yeah!
Used to introduce an intensified statement following an understated one; nay; not only that, but.
Usage- Colloquial
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
Do it, or, rest assured, there will be no more Middle Eastern crisis – hell, there will be no more Middle East!
Adverb
Very; used to emphasize strongly.
Usage- Australia
- New-Zealand
- Colloquial
- not-comparable
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Synonyms
- Examples
-
That was hell good!
They're hell sexy.
Verb
To make hellish; to place (someone) in hell; to make (a place) into a hell.
Usage- Colloquial
- sometimes
- Vulgar
To hurry, rush.
Usage- Colloquial
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
I had already lost thirteen points, all because she had to come helling in there at twelve, worrying me about that letter.
To move quickly and loudly; to raise hell as part of motion.
Usage- Colloquial
- Intransitive
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
He was helling down the road with his radio blaring.
Verb
To add luster to; to burnish (silver or gold).
Usage- Colloquial
- Rare
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
To hell gold or gilt workː take two ounces of tartar, two ounces of sulfur.. and it will give it a fine luster.
Verb
To pour.
Usage- Colloquial
- Rare
- sometimes
- Vulgar
- Examples
-
18th century, Josiah Relph, The Harvest; or Bashful Shepherd Gosh, the sickle went into me handː Down hell'd the bluid.
Noun
any place of pain and turmoil
- Examples
-
the hell of battle
the inferno of the engine room
More examples (1)
when you're alone Christmas is the pits
a cause of difficulty and suffering
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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war is hell
go to blazes
noisy and unrestrained mischief
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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raising blazes