hell

May you rot in hell!

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.

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:

(in many religions, uncountable) A place of torment where some or all sinners are believed to go after death and evil spirits are believed to be.

→ Korean: 헬 (hel)

النَّار f (an-nār, literally “the Fire”)

នរកកុណ្ឌ

nĕəʼrĕəʼkaʼkon

From Middle English helle, from Old English hell, from Proto-West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō (“concealed place, netherworld”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, conceal, save”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälle (“hell”), West Frisian hel (“hell”), Dutch hel (“hell”), German Low German Hell (“hell”), German Hölle (“hell”), Norwegian helvete (“hell”), Icelandic hel (“the abode of the dead, death”). Also related to the Hel of Germanic mythology. See also hele.

cog

Hell (alternative)
hel (alternative)
helle (alternative)


hell

My new boss is making my job a hell.

I went through hell to get home today.

callback hell; <table> hell; <div> hell (computer programming)

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:

(countable, hyperbolic, figuratively) A place or situation of great suffering in life.

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:

a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless

1877, William Black, Green Pastures and Piccadilly:

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, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, →OCLC; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, →OCLC, page 15:

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

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

What the hell is wrong with you?!

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

(sometimes vulgar) Used as an intensifier in phrases grammatically requiring a noun.

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:

(obsolete) A place into which a tailor throws shreds, or a printer discards broken type.

In certain games of chase, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.

That steep staircase is hell on my knees.

(colloquial, usually with on) Something extremely painful or harmful (to)

en-noun

hell (countable and uncountable, plural hells)

hells (plural)
Hell (alternative)
hel (alternative)
helle (alternative)

hell is full of good meanings, but heaven is full of good works

the road to hell is paved with good intentions

នរកកុណ្ឌ

nĕəʼrĕəʼkaʼkon


hell

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! […]

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]:

(colloquial, sometimes vulgar) Used to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.

Hell, yeah!

(colloquial, sometimes vulgar, non-productive) Used to emphasize.

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

(colloquial, sometimes vulgar) Used to introduce an intensified statement following an understated one; nay; not only that, but.


hell

‘[…] 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:

(postpositional) Alternative form of the hell or like hell.

That was hell good!

They're hell sexy.

(Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, sometimes vulgar) Very; used to emphasize strongly.


hell

To make hellish; to place (someone) in hell; to make (a place) into a hell.

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:

He was helling down the road with his radio blaring.

(intransitive) To move quickly and loudly; to raise hell as part of motion.

en-verb

hell (third-person singular simple present hells, present participle helling, simple past and past participle helled)

hells (present singular third-person)
helling (participle present)
helled (participle past)
helled (past)
Hell (alternative)
hel (alternative)
helle (alternative)


hell

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:

(rare, metal-working) To add luster to; to burnish (silver or gold).

From German hellen (“to brighten, burnish”). Related to Dutch hel (“clear, bright”) and German hell (“clear, bright”).


hell

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

From Middle English hellen, from Old Norse hella (“to pour”), from Proto-Germanic *halþijaną (“to incline, tip; to pour out, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to lean, incline”). Cognate with Icelandic hella (“to pour”), Norwegian helle (“to pour”), Swedish hälla (“to pour”). See also English hield.