"hellhound" meaning in English

See hellhound in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /hɛl.haʊnd/ Forms: hellhounds [plural]
Etymology: From Middle English helle hound; equivalent to hell + hound. Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|helle hound}} Middle English helle hound, {{compound|en|hell|hound}} hell + hound Head templates: {{en-noun}} hellhound (plural hellhounds)
  1. (mythology) A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics. Categories (topical): Mythological creatures, Hell, Horror Synonyms: hound of hell Translations (dog of hell): Höllenhund [masculine] (German), cancerbero [masculine] (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-hellhound-en-noun-O9J0qFqB Disambiguation of Hell: 95 5 Disambiguation of Horror: 65 35 Topics: human-sciences, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, sciences Disambiguation of 'dog of hell': 100 0
  2. (figurative) An evil or otherwise unpleasant person. Tags: figuratively Synonyms: hound of hell
    Sense id: en-hellhound-en-noun-g5dNJTWc Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with German translations, Terms with Spanish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 34 66 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 30 70 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 33 67 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 28 72 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 26 74 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 24 76
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: hell hound, hell-hound Related terms: Cerberus, Orthrus

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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        "3": "helle hound"
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      "expansion": "Middle English helle hound",
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      "args": {
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        "2": "hell",
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  "etymology_text": "From Middle English helle hound; equivalent to hell + hound.",
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  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "Cerberus"
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    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "Orthrus"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Mythological creatures",
          "orig": "en:Mythological creatures",
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          "_dis": "95 5",
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          "ref": "c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 195, column 2:",
          "text": "From forth the kennell of thy wombe hath crept / A Hell-hound that doth hunt vs all to death:",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter X, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women):",
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          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics."
      ],
      "id": "en-hellhound-en-noun-O9J0qFqB",
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        [
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        ],
        [
          "ghostly",
          "ghostly"
        ],
        [
          "phantom",
          "phantom"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(mythology) A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hound of hell"
        }
      ],
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "dog of hell",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Höllenhund"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "es",
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          "sense": "dog of hell",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "cancerbero"
        }
      ]
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      "word": "hell hound"
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      "_dis1": "0 0",
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    "English terms derived from Middle English",
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      "word": "Cerberus"
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      "word": "Orthrus"
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          "ref": "c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], page 195, column 2:",
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          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "1837, Thomas Carlyle, chapter X, in The French Revolution: A History […], volume I (The Bastille), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, book VII (The Insurrection of Women):",
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        "A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics."
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          "ghostly",
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        "(mythology) A demonic dog of hell, typically of unnatural size, strength or speed, with black fur, glowing eyes, and ghostly or phantom characteristics."
      ],
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        "(figurative) An evil or otherwise unpleasant person."
      ],
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    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "dog of hell",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Höllenhund"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "dog of hell",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "cancerbero"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hellhound"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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