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单词 hell
释义

helln.int.

Brit. /hɛl/, U.S. /hɛl/
Forms: Old English ell (Northumbrian), Old English helde (genitive, transmission error), Old English hille (rare), Old English hylle (rare), Old English 1500s hyll (rare), Old English–1500s helle, Old English–1700s (1800s– Irish English (Wexford)) hel, Old English– hell, late Old English (in compounds) Middle English hele, early Middle English hælle, early Middle English hellen (perhaps transmission error), Middle English elle, Middle English holle (perhaps transmission error), 1800s– 'ell (nonstandard); English regional 1800s hale (south-eastern and east midlands), 1800s hel, 1800s– 'ell, 1800s– hail (south-eastern), 1800s– heel (Berkshire), 1900s– ail (south-eastern), 1900s– ell; Scottish pre-1700 hel, pre-1700 1700s– hell, 1800s– helle (Shetland). Also with capital initial.
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Frisian helle , hille , Old Dutch helle (Middle Dutch helle , Dutch hel ), Old Saxon hellia , hel (Middle Low German helle ), Old High German hella (Middle High German helle , German Hölle ), Old Icelandic hel (also the name of the goddess of the underworld: see Hel n., and compare Hela n.1), Old Swedish häl (Swedish hel ), Old Danish heliæ , genitive (Danish hel ), Gothic halja , showing a derivative noun (originally strong feminine) probably < the same Indo-European base as heel v.1An alternative derivation < the Germanic base of Old Icelandic hella flat stone, hallr stone, boulder, hill, Gothic hallus rock (of uncertain origin, perhaps ultimately < the same Indo-European base as hill n.), suggesting that the underworld was imagined as covered by a stone, is not generally accepted. In senses A. 1a and A. 1b corresponding to and sometimes translating ancient Greek ᾅδης (see Hades n.), classical Latin īnferna , neuter plural (see infernal adj.), īnferī (also denoting inhabitants of hell; compare sense A. 3b), post-classical Latin infernus and inferus (both in Vetus Latina and Vulgate; compare also sense A. 3); in biblical contexts (in sense A. 1a) also translating Hebrew šĕ'ōl grave (see Sheol n.); with sense A. 1b compare also classical Latin Orcus . In English translations of the Bible, Hebrew šĕ'ōl is also translated as the grave (compare grave n.1 2b) and the pit (compare pit n.1 6, hell pit n. at Compounds 2). In sense A. 2 in biblical contexts translating post-classical Latin gehenna (Vetus Latina and Vulgate) and its etymon Hellenistic Greek γέεννα place of torment for the wicked after death (see gehenna n.). With sense A. 8 compare French enfer (1783 in this sense). In Old English usually a strong feminine (hell , genitive helle ), occasionally also a strong masculine (helle ) or neuter (hell ) or a weak feminine (helle ). (Where forms with final -e occur as the first element of compounds in Old English and early Middle English, it is difficult to determine whether this shows attributive use of a disyllabic stem form or an inflected genitive form modifying the second word: compare e.g. hell-fire n., hellhound n., and Compounds 1.) In colloquial phrases hell is sometimes euphemistically printed or written with dashes or other devices (e.g. h—ll ) (see also heck n.3 and int.).
A. n.
1. The dwelling place of the dead; the abode of departed spirits; the infernal regions regarded as a place of existence after death; the underworld; the grave; Hades.
a. In the Christian tradition. See note in etymology. In this and subsequent senses frequently without article, as a proper name. In later use often difficult to distinguish fully from sense A. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun]
helleOE
hellOE
perditiona1382
perishingc1384
welling woea1400
hellwardc1400
Topheta1425
gehenne1481
to devilwardc1550
limbo1581
Averna1592
Hades1597
Sheol1599
other place1604
underworld1608
infernals1613
gehenna1623
lower world1639
netherworld1640
pandemonium1667
subterrenea1711
diablerie1776
inferno1834
ballyhooly1837
nether region1839
Sam Hill1839
Ballyhack1843
tunket1871
bogydom1880
eOE (Mercian) Vespasian Psalter (1965) liv. 13 (16) Veniat mors super illos et descendant in infernum uiuentes : cyme deað ofer hie & astigen hie in helle lifgende.
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xxxvii. 35 Ic fare to minum suna to helle [L. descendam ad filium meum lugens in infernum].
c1200 Serm. in Eng. & Germanic Stud. (1961) 7 63 And heo al man cun to helle venden et heore liues ende.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xlii. 38 Ȝe schall lede doun myn hore heerez with soru to helle [L. ad inferos].
a1438 Bk. Margery Kempe (1940) i. 16 (MED) Þow schalt neuyr com in Helle ne in Purgatorye.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) xv. §10. 54 Þou sall noght leue my saule in hell.
1502 tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) i. vii. sig. g.iii For before that he styed vnto the heuens he descended in to the helles.
1529 T. More Supplyc. Soulys ii. f. xxviiiv Descendit ad inferna: that ys to say he descended downe byneth in to the lowe placys. In stede of whyche low placys the englyshe tong hath euer vsed thys worde hell.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Acts ii. D His soule was not left in hell [1881 R. V. Hades].
1649 Bp. J. Taylor Great Exemplar iii. §16. 170 Our Lord descended into hell..that is into the state of separation and common receptacle of spirits.
1685 W. Clark Grand Tryal iii. xxii. 183 Dost think that God..can tell..What all those things do act, who live in Hell?
a1748 I. Watts Improvem. Mind ii. v, in Coll. Wks. (1753) V. 341 I will explain the word hell to signify the state of the dead, or the separate state of souls..and..that the soul of Christ existed three days in the state of separation from his body, or was in the invisible world.
a1848 R. W. Hamilton Rewards & Punishm. (1853) iii. 113 The real conception of hell, is that which is unseen, the invisible state.
1898 Biblical World 12 155 I do not take account of the article on Christ's descent into hell, or Hades.
1979 Numen 26 28 The belief that between his death and Resurrection Christ entered Hell, preached to the dead, vanquished death, and released imprisoned souls.
2006 Times Higher Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 22 Dec. 24 Jesus himself descends to Hell (or Hades) to liberate the righteous dead from Satan's jurisdiction.
b. In Greek and Latin mythology.the hound of hell: see hound n.1 3.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > in classical mythology
helleOE
Acherona1393
the shadows1490
Tartara1525
Tartarus1586
Tartaryc1588
the shades1594
Hades1599
eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in J. J. Quinn Minor Lat.-Old Eng. Glossaries in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1956) 219 Ex herebo, of helle.
eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) xxxv. 102 Ða sceolde cuman ðære helle hund ongean hine, þæs nama wæs Cerueruerus [read Ceruerus].
c1405 (c1385) G. Chaucer Knight's Tale (Hengwrt) 1200 Parotheus..felawe was vn to duc Theseus..whan that oon was deed..His felawe wente and soghte hym down in helle.
a1464 J. Capgrave Chron. Eng. (Cambr.) 33 (MED) The v. [labour of Hercules] is bynding of Cerberus, the hound of helle.
a1529 J. Skelton Phyllyp Sparowe (?1545) sig. D.viiv By the feryman of hell Caron with his beerd hore.
1588 W. Kempe Educ. Children 29 Aeneas going to hell, like to Vlysses going to hell.
1632 T. Heywood Iron Age v. i. sig. Kv Charon the Ferri-man of Hell shall bee My Ganimed.
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory ii. x. 209 The three headed Dog of Hell, which Hercules is said to bring away with him in a Chain.
1713 A. Pope Ode Musick 5 He sung, and Hell consented To hear the Poet's Pray'r.
1776 W. J. Mickle in tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad vii. 283 (note) Pluto, tyrant of hell, having seized Eurydice..detained her.
1820 P. B. Shelley Orpheus 67 Returning from drear Hell.
1892 Scribner's Mag. July 46/1 Orpheus, who descended into hell to save a soul.
1941 Classical Rev. 55 70/1 The Homeric story..that Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades drew lots for Sky, Sea, and Hell.
1977 Tempo No. 123. 53 The only two of the rivers of hell I could have named—Acheron and Styx.
2001 M. M. Winkler Classical Myth & Culture in Cinema 31 A Hermes figure..who not only guides the hero into hell but also helps him return to the upper world.
c. In Scandinavian mythology.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > in Scandinavian mythology
hell1770
1770 T. Percy tr. P. H. Mallet Northern Antiq. II. xxix. 151 The Gods..dispatched messengers throughout the world, begging of every thing to weep, in order to deliver Balder from Hell [Fr. des enfers, L. ab inferno].
1865 F. M. Müller in Times 21 Apr. 4/4 To Northern nations Hell was a cold place, a dreary region of snow and frost.
1875 Amer. Cycl. X. 205/2 The Sæmundic Edda, in which is narrated the descent of Odin to the Scandinavian hell in order to consult the prophetess Angarbodi.
1921 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 41 191 Heaven is warm and hell cold in Norse mythology, the reverse is true in southern climates.
1996 C. Larrington tr. Poetic Edda (1999) 10 Yggdrasill shudders..the ancient tree groans and the giant is loose; all are terrified on the roads to hell [Icel. á helvegom].
2. The infernal regions regarded in various religions as a place of suffering and evil; the dwelling place of devils and condemned spirits; the place or state of punishment of the wicked after death.See note in etymology regarding the Christian use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun]
helleOE
hellOE
perditiona1382
perishingc1384
welling woea1400
hellwardc1400
Topheta1425
gehenne1481
to devilwardc1550
limbo1581
Averna1592
Hades1597
Sheol1599
other place1604
underworld1608
infernals1613
gehenna1623
lower world1639
netherworld1640
pandemonium1667
subterrenea1711
diablerie1776
inferno1834
ballyhooly1837
nether region1839
Sam Hill1839
Ballyhack1843
tunket1871
bogydom1880
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > [noun] > place or state of
hellOE
OE Blickling Homilies 61 Se gifra helle bið a open deoflum & þæm mannum þe nu be his [sc. the Devil's] larum lifiaþ.
OE Rule St. Benet (Tiber.) (1888) vii. 36 Monachus..universa que prius non sine formidine observabat..incipiet custodire non jam timore gehenne sed amore christi : se munuc..ealle þinc ær buton forhte þe he geheold..anginne gehealde na mid ege helle ac mid cristes lufan.
a1225 MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 61 From hwonne þe engles adun follon in to þe þosternesse hellen.
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 119 Þenne nis hit to naut se god ase to þe fur of helle.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) l. 10417 Þouȝtes he adde inowe, Leste þe deuelen of helle al quic to helle him drowe.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 478 Lucifer..þat formast fell, thoru his ouengart [read ouergart] in to hell.
?a1425 Mandeville's Trav. (Egerton) (1889) 29 Þe entreez and þe ȝates of hell.
1522 J. Skelton Why come ye nat to Courte 590 As ferce and as cruell As the fynd of hell.
1581 T. Lupton Persuasion from Papistrie 59 You shall haue al the saide plagues and Gods cursses in this world, and endlesse damnation in Hell after your death.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost x. 230 Within the Gates of Hell sate Sin and Death. View more context for this quotation
1683 W. Bates Serm. Death & Eternal Judgement 48 There will be no righteous Complaint against God in Hell, where the Punishment is inflicted by powerful Justice.
1731 A. Pope Epist. to Earl of Burlington 12 Who never mentions Hell to Ears polite.
1773 J. Home Alonzo iii. i. 37 The blackest fiend, that dwells in burning hell.
1827 R. Pollok Course of Time I. v. 235 Leagues, tho' holy termed, first ratified In hell.
1856 R. A. Vaughan Hours with Mystics (1860) II. 16 Not fully God's is he who cannot live, Even in hell, and find in hell no hell.
1888 Old Test. Student 8 63 The hell of the Koran is one of literal fire.
1934 Times 1 Mar. 9/7 The ethical utility of heaven and hell, conceived as reward and punishment, is that of a preparatory discipline from which we must escape if our actions..are to be truly moral.
1955 J. P. Donleavy Ginger Man xx. 228 If it's ever found out, I think I'm going to die and with this sin I'd be doomed forever to hell.
1987 L. Kendall Shamans, Housewives & other Restless Spirits 152 By Buddhist doctrine the soul suffers in hell for forty-nine days after death.
2001 Speculum 76 628 Earlier descriptions of hell repeatedly include icy terrain..among the agonies of hell.
3.
a. The infernal regions regarded as a living being, esp. one with an open mouth or extended jaws. Cf. hell-mouth n. at Compounds 2. Chiefly poetic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > personified
hellOE
OE Crist III 1159 Hell eac ongeat, scyldwreccende, þæt se scyppend cwom, waldende god, þa heo þæt weorud ageaf, hloþe of ðam hatan hreþre.
OE tr. Gospel of Nicodemus (Cambr.) xx. §2. 209 Seo hell [L. Inferus] þa swiðe grymme and swyðe egeslice andswarode þa Satanase þam ealdan deofle.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1969) Isa. v. 14 Helle [L. infernus] spradde abrod his soule & openede his [16th c. vers. her] mouþ withoute any terme.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Trin. Cambr.) l. 18025 (MED) Helle ȝaf to sathan vnswere..‘þis..was he Þat dede men dud drawe fro me.’
c1425 Concordance Wycliffite Bible f. 67v Helle & deeþ weren sent into a pool of fyer, apoc. twentiþe cap.
1536 Bp. J. Longland Serm. Good Fryday sig. Kiiv He dydde nott vtterly slee or kyll hell, but dydd byte itt.
1598 F. Meres tr. Luis de Granada Sinners Guyde i. iv. 51 Who will be so rash and foole-hardie, that he dare offend God, when he seeth before him both Paradice open, and hell enlarging her mouth?
1606 P. Howard Foure-Fould Medit. sig. D Beneath thee hell, to swallow thee doth gape.
1641 R. Brathwait Mercurius Britanicus iv. sig. D4 Now hell hath opened his mouth, come out you generation of vipers.
1753 R. Challoner Considerations Christian Truths I. 28 See how hell opens wide its jaws, and daily swallows down thousands of them [sc. souls.]
1801 J. B. Burges Richard I II. xii. 114 When victorious Hell distends her jaws.
1840 J. N. Smith Ramanzo iv. ii. 52 Hell vomits its womb upon the earth.
1911 Jewish Q. Rev. 1 322 They, therefore, took the words..as a..sign, representing the man for whom hell opens her mouth as the one who falls short.
1990 S. MacLean From Wood to Ridge (1999) ii. 78 The first day I kissed your mouth Hell opened its two jaws.
b. The powers, inhabitants, or wicked spirits of hell. Also: the kingdom or power of hell.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > personified > power(s) of
hellc1425
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > inhabitant of > collect > powers of
hellc1425
c1425 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Harl.) 322 (MED) Heuene & helle & ech þyng [c1325 Calig. Of heuene of helle of ech þing] mot nede hys heste do.
1559 W. Baldwin et al. Myrroure for Magistrates Clifford x Hel haleth tirauntes downe to death amayne.
1598 F. Meres tr. Luis de Granada Deuotion xxxvii. 351 If all hell should rise vp against thee, yea thou wouldest reioyce.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iv. vii. 215 In despight of the diuels and hell, haue through the verie middest of you. View more context for this quotation
1706 D. Baker Hist. Job i. 21 All Hell's Methods prove Unable his Religious Mind to move.
1792 T. Holcroft Anna St. Ives VI. cxii. 183 All hell seems busy to blacken me!
1845 S. Austin tr. L. von Ranke Hist. Reformation in Germany III. 193 He had fought against Satan and hell.
1914 W. S. Blunt Bride of Nile in Poet. Wks. II. ii. 386 God shall be our shield though all Hell should assail.
2000 Evening Post (Nottingham) (Nexis) 25 Sept. 48 I knew that all of hell couldn't stop us if we got out in front.
†c. An infernal or devilish assembly; a hellful. Frequently with of. Also figurative and in figurative contexts. Cf. hellful n. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > inhabitant of > collect
hell wareOE
hell1588
1588 A. Munday tr. Palmerin D'Oliua i. f. 1v She..made no reckoning of his importunate and dilligent seruice, which drewe a Hell of tormentinge thoughts vppon Tarisius.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III i. iii. 224 Some tormenting dreame Affrights thee with a hell of vgly diuels. View more context for this quotation
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. i. 303 'Tis that old Python which..doth fire A Hell of furies in his fell desire.
a1656 Bp. J. Hall Great Myst. Godliness (1659) xiv. [xiii.] 63 There is now such an hell of the spirits of errour broken loose into the world.
1857 Times 18 Nov. 10/5 Your daughters have not passed to the grave through a hell of loathsome abominations more terrible than death.
1926 R. Kipling Debits & Credits 334 Our John here returns from the Moors, and shows us a hell of devils contending in the compass of one drop of water.
4. A part of a building or other place regarded as resembling hell because of its darkness, discomfort, etc.; spec. a part of the old law courts at Westminster in London, apparently used at one time as a record office. Also: a prison or place of confinement, originally for debtors. Now rare. In quot. 1970 in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > parts of building > room > types of room generally > [noun] > others
hell1310
summer hall1388
summer parloura1425
paradise1485
fire room1591
garden room1619
ease-room1629
portcullis1631
divan1678
but?1700
sluttery1711
rotunda1737
glass casea1777
dungeon1782
hall of mirrors1789
balcony-chamber1800
showroom1820
mirror room1858
vomitorium1923
mosquito room1925
refuge room1937
quiet room1938
Florida room1968
roomset1980
wet room1982
society > law > administration of justice > judicial body, assembly, or court > place where court is held > [noun] > courthouse > specifically in England > parts of
hell1310
sidebar1642
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > for debtors
pounda1500
pledge chamber1577
hell1598
pledge-house1634
sponging-house1699
repository1785
jankers1916
1310 in F. W. Maitland Year Bks. Edward II (1904) II. p.xvi Hic in aula in loco qui vocatur Helle sub banco.
1323 in F. R. Chapman Sacrist Rolls Ely (1907) II. 27 Super cameram in Infirmaria que vocatur Helle.
1474 W. Caxton tr. Game & Playe of Chesse (1883) iii. iii. 95 Men of the lawe..that lange to the courtes of the channcery kinges benche, comyn place, cheker, ressayt and helle And the bagge berars of the same.
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Secreta,..also the name of a place in Venice where all their secret records and ancient euidences be kept, as hell is in westminster hall.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) iv. ii. 40 One that before the Iudgment carries poore soules to hel . View more context for this quotation
?1626 R. Speed Counter-ratt in Counter Scuffle (new ed.) sig. E3v Aske any how such newes I tell, Of Woodstreets Hole or Poultries Hell?
a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Westm. 236 There is a place partly under, partly by the Exchequer Court commonly called Hell..formerly this place was appointed a prison for the Kings debtors, who never were freed thence, untill they had paid their uttermost due demanded of them.
1681 W. Dugdale Short View Late Troubles xxx. 363 Their great Victualling-house, near Westminster-Hall, called Hell.
1784 Proc. Old Bailey 21 Apr. 511/1 I saw the man on the other side of the way, under the dead wall of the Parliament house, at the place they call hell.
1811 J. Farey Gen. View Agric. Derbyshire I. 405 The small Cupolas, or Hells as they are called, which are used in the Foundries here..for heating Pig-iron.
1970 News Herald (Panama City, Florida) 7 July 5a/5 The famous and tricky St Andrews golf course in Scotland has one trap known as ‘Hell’ because it's so hard to get out of.
2006 Daily Record (Nexis) 28 Aug. 1 His part in a £48 million cocaine smuggling plot landed him in a South American jail known as Hell.
5.
a. A place, state, or situation of wickedness, suffering, or misery. In later use frequently hyperbolical.In quot. 1586 applied to a person.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > adversity > [noun] > dire
hella1450
unshirted hell1932
society > morality > moral evil > [noun] > place of evil
swallowc1380
hella1450
sink1526
pump1531
Sodom?1550
Tophet1618
pandemonium1800
hell's kitchen1827
sin city1973
a1450 (c1375) G. Chaucer Anelida & Arcite (Tanner 346) (1878) l. 166 The helle That suffereth fayre Annelida.
a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) 1034 (MED) I am right sikir it hath ben an helle Yow for to herken me þus iangle & clappe.
1563 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments 1392/1 Afterward [he] felte such a hel in his conscience, that he could scarse refrayne from destroying himselfe.
1586 A. Day Eng. Secretorie i. sig. F1 Hee was called the Hell of the worlde, the Plague of a common weale.
1609 W. Shakespeare Sonnets cxx. sig. H2 Y'haue past a hell of Time.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost iv. 78 In the lowest deep a lower deep Still threatning to devour me opens wide, To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heav'n. View more context for this quotation
1719 E. Young Busiris i. 8 I fear no farther Hell than that I feel.
1783 G. Colman Fatal Curiosity ii. iii. 33 This hell of poverty o'ertook me.
1833 T. Chalmers On Power Wisdom & Goodness of God I. ii. 121 They kindle a hell in the heart of the unhappy owner.
1903 R. Kipling Five Nations 51 Yes, we shall be perfectly pleased with our work, And that is the perfectest Hell of it!
1944 Living off Land: Man. Bushcraft v. 103 A boggy area is hell to plough through with a wheeled vehicle.
1951 N. Balchin Way through Wood viii. 111 I should think he'd be pretty average hell to live with.
1977 Belfast Tel. 28 Feb. 1/1 Two elderly spinsters were put through hell for two hours.
2003 Jrnl. Mil. Hist. 67 1160 Two ridges..converged to make this area a veritable hell to break through.
b. Originally: a yawning depth, an abyss. In later use (English regional (Yorkshire) and Irish English (Wexford)): a hole, a hollow.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [noun]
pathOE
slackc1400
navela1425
trough1513
nook1555
falling1565
swale1584
hella1653
depression1665
holl1701
sag1727
dip1783
recession1799
holler1845
sike1859
sitch1888
sulcus1901
a1653 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 148 The tossed ship from Hells goes to the skye.
1867 J. Poole Gloss. Forth & Bargy Wexford 45 Hel, a hollow. Hel-teoun in Ballymore, Forth. The farmstead in the hollow.
1882 J. Lucas Stud. in Nidderdale Gloss. 258 I believe all the 'Hell' holes or becks that have come under my observation have been deep, narrow, wooded (but that is not essential), gills, with spring at the bottom.
1990 D. Ó Muirithe Mod. Gloss. Forth & Bargy in Irish Univ. Rev. 20 158 Hel, a hollow.
c. A place or state of turmoil and discord.
ΚΠ
1700 J. Hopkins Amasia II. 70 Two Rival Vessels..Into a Hell of Waters tumbled down.
1818 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto IV lxix. 37 The hell of waters! where they howl and hiss, And boil in endless torture.
1847 E. Brontë Wuthering Heights I. xii. 283 Why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words?
1902 A. H. Adams Nazarene 36 Judas, his head a sudden whirling hell, Went staggering through the vacant night with Hate.
1937 Nebraska State Jrnl. 28 Apr. 10/2 Compared to the raging hell on deck, it was snug enough here, but far from dry.
2002 Evening Standard (Palmerston North, N.Z.) (Nexis) 23 Nov. 8 I'm sorry to inform all the letter-writers and scaremongers, but Britain is not the seething hell of race-rioting they would like to think.
d. In the genitive, used adverbially as an intensifier: extremely, terribly; ‘hellishly’, ‘damned’. Cf. hell's own at Phrases 4g.
ΚΠ
1962 ‘J. le Carré’ Murder of Quality i. 10 He's entertaining every don... Hells extravagant.
1963 C. Bingham Coronet among Weeds ii. 25 They sit about and..talk about their ancestors. Ancestors are hell's boring.
6. The den or base to which captives are carried in the games barley-break and prisoners' bars. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > children's game > hiding or chasing game > [noun] > prisoner's base > den
hell1557
1557 H. Machyn Diary (1848) 132 Master parsun..entryd into helle, and ther ded at the barle breyke with alle the wyffe of the sam parryche.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1593) i. sig. H4 The two that in mid place, Hell called, were, Must striue with waiting foot, and watching eye To catch of them, and them to hell to beare, That they, aswell as they, Hell may supplie.
1608 R. Armin Nest of Ninnies sig. G4 Like a girle at barly breake, leauing the last couple in hell, away she gads and neuer lookes behind her.
1631 J. Shirley Schoole of Complement iii. i. 38 What, at Barley-breake? which couple are in hell?
a1642 J. Suckling Poems 24 in Fragmenta Aurea (1646) Love, Reason, Hate, did once bespeak Three mates to play at barley-break..Love coupled last, and so it fell That Love and Folly were in hell.
1835 Penny Cycl. III. 466/2 [Barley-Break] When all had been taken in turn, the last couple was said to be in hell, and the game ended.
1947 Western Folklore 6 144 The playing ground was divided into three parts, the middle one of which was called Hell.
1983 Rev. Eng. Stud. 34 438 Beatrice–De Flores are left as the last couple in hell.
7.
†a. More fully tailor's hell. A place in a tailor's shop into which shreds or offcuts of material are thrown. Chiefly figurative in later use. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > clothing > tailoring or making clothes > [noun] > place > board > under board
hell1589
pandemonium1808
1589 ‘Marphoreus’ Martins Months Minde sig. F4 Remember the shreddes that fall into the Tailors hell, neuer come backe to couer your backe.
1592 R. Greene Quip for Vpstart Courtier sig. Dv He can cast large shreds of such rich stuffe into hell vnder his shoppe boord.
1606 J. Day Ile of Guls sig. B1v Like a Taylers hell, it eates vp part of euery mans due.
1696 New Ballad upon Land-bank (single sheet) Whatever Taylors throw in Hell, Serves to make, or mend, or sell.
1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub iii. 87 The Taylor's Hell is the Type of a Critick's Common-place-Book.
1765 Elegy on Death of Guardian Outwitted 17 No farther..draw his Breeches from their darksome Cell; There, like their Master, let them find Repose, not dread the Horrors of a Taylor's Hell.
1805 in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1806) 9 245 (note) Hell, a place so termed by the knights of the needle, wherein they stow their cabbage.
1815 W. Drennan Fugitive Pieces 82 Thou literary Harlequin!..With patch'd and party-colour'd dress, Made up of shreds of languages; A tailor's hell of common-places.
1847 Amer. Whig Rev. Jan. 73/2 Mr. Yorick's motives..were of so complicated and subtle a mixture,..collected out of such a sink and tailor's hell of experiences.
†b. Typography. A receptacle or place for damaged or broken type; = hell box n. at Compounds 2. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > composing equipment > [noun] > box for damaged or broken type
hell box1852
hell1870
hell-receptacle1876
1870 O. H. Harpel Harpel's Typography 246 Hell, the receptacle for broken or battered letters.
c. A receptacle or place used for waste in other contexts. Now rare (regional).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > clearing of refuse matter > refuse disposal > [noun] > receptacle for refuse
vat1534
voider1613
waste-paper box1836
dustbin1847
kid1847
waste-basket1850
scrap-box1858
waste-paper basket1859
garbage can1869
can1872
hell1872
scrap basket1872
sink tidy1881
tidy-betty1884
kitchen tidy1885
midden1890
wagger1903
W.P.B.1903
waste-bin1915
Sanibin1921
binette1922
G.I. can1929
trash can1929
trashbag1934
litter-bin1947
shitcan1948
pedal bin1951
trash-bin1955
litter-basket1958
midgie1965
bin1972
swing bin1972
tidy bin1972
dump bin1978
wheelie bin1984
binbag1986
1872 Saddl. Harn. & Carriage Builder's Gaz. 1 Dec. 207/2 Each smith shop has what is termed the ‘hell’, and in cutting off a set of tires, if the farmer is not present, the largest half of the end cut off finds its way to the ‘hell.’
1886 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 345/2 A useful adjunct to the many saw-mills, which produce more waste than can be consumed in raising the necessary steam, is the ‘slab-burner’ or ‘hell’.
1999 D. Parry Gram. & Gloss. Conservative Anglo-Welsh Dial. Rural Wales 160/1 Hell, the ash-hole of a fire-grate.
8. A gaming house; a gambling den. Now chiefly in gambling hell n. at gambling n. Compounds 2b.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > game > games of chance > [noun] > places for gambling
dicing-house1549
carding house1550
gaming house1562
dicing-chamber1571
tabling house1576
game house?1577
macaroni1771
gambling house1772
gambling school1773
gambling club1774
spill-house1778
gambling hall?1781
gambling den1792
gambling booth1804
hell1812
gambling hell1818
Crockford1827
silver hell1835
deadfall1837
casino1851
house1855
tripot1864
skin house1871
bucket-shop1875
gambling joint1885
salle1886
tabling den1886
spoofery1895
salle de jeu1901
strong joint1914
kitchen1924
salle privée1930
spieler1931
1793 Sporting Mag. 3 130 A noted gambling-house in Dame-street, Dublin..known by the name of Hell.]
1812 R. Wilson Private Diary I. 38 Then to the conversazione, which is no other than a great gambling hall, or hell in classical terms.
1823 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto XI xxix. 117 Don Juan..Pursued his path, and drove past some Hotels, St. James's Palace and St. James's ‘Hells’.
1898 H. S. Canfield Maid of Frontier 85 He had spent some time around the flash hells of the cities.
1983 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. No. 70. 37 Went into all the playhouses and hells to see if soldiers were making disturbances.
B. int.
Expressing annoyance, anger, or surprise. Also with intensifying adjective, as bloody hell, fucking hell, etc.The register of usage ranges from informal to impolite.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > oaths > [noun] > religious oaths (referring to God) > referring to the devil or hell
fienda1568
hangment1825
heck1887
hell1888
Hades1912
hell-fire1939
1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. at Oaths With some individuals ‘Hell! bloody hell!’ serve to eke out most sentences.
1891 J. M. Barrie Little Minister III. xlii. 187 When she had finished I jumped to my feet, and I cried, ‘Hell!’ and I lifted up my hat.
1924 J. Buchan Three Hostages xviii. 263 ‘Hell!’ he cried, with a torrent of Bowery oaths.
1936 G. Greene This Gun for Hire i. 27 Oh hell, I've no coppers.
1940 R. Chandler Farewell, my Lovely xxxiii. 157 Hell, I thought he sold reefers. With the right protection behind him. But hell, that's a small-time racket.
1973 W. Ihimaera Tangi xix. 71 Bloody Hell! he cries. The old man's dead!
1986 I. Wedde Symmes Hole (1988) 75 Fuckin' hell Harry it's the cops!
1999 D. King Boxy an Star (2000) 122 O flipping hell Boxy we thought you was getting the pills.
2005 S. Amick Lake, River & Other Lake xxxii. 131 Hell, he'd power-rodded the guy's main line at least a dozen times and barely charged him the standard price.

Phrases

Many of the phrases below are colloquial.
P1. Proverbs.
a. (all) hell breaks (also (is) let) loose: events are chaotic, confusion reigns.
ΚΠ
?1577 Misogonus in R. W. Bond Early Plays from Ital. (1911) 215 To be revelinge and bousinge after such a lewde fashion I thinke hell breake louse.
1600 S. Nicholson Acolastus his After-witte sig. E4v Before my hell of foule mishap breake loose.
1679 J. Dryden & N. Lee Oedipus ii. 26 Since Hell's broke loose, why should not you be mad?
1777 W. Combe Diabo-lady 13 Call up my guards—What! is all Hell broke loose?
1821 Ld. Byron Vision Judgm. lviii Their..cries..realised the phrase of ‘hell broke loose’.
1926 T. E. Lawrence Seven Pillars (subscribers' ed.) lxxvii. 405 It was hopeless to think of recovering them, with such hell let loose.
1987 K. Lette Girls' Night Out (1989) 27 So of course when some little ‘hussy’ decided to charge the favourite cop at the police station with assault, you know, all hell broke loose.
1999 C. Dolan Ascension Day (2000) viii. 192 She..gave that useless family a piece of her mind. All hell was let loose, and before long Morag was suspended from her job.
b. (the road to) hell is paved with good intentions and variants. [Attributed to St Bernard by St Francis de Sales (1604 (letter of 21 Nov.), in Corresp.: Lettres d'Amitié Spirituelle (1980) 186, in the form l'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs, lit. ‘hell is full of good intentions and wishes’), but apparently not found in the works of St Bernard. Early English versions of the proverb similarly do not refer to hell or the road to hell being paved, but simply being filled with good intentions. Later versions mentioning paving (now the usual forms) are perhaps influenced by Ecclesiasticus 20:10: ‘The way of sinners is made plain with stones, but at the end thereof is the pit of hell’ (King James Bible; compare via peccantium conplanata lapidibus et in fine illorum inferi et tenebrae et poena (Vulgate, Ecclesiasticus 20:11)). Versions of this proverb are found in several European languages.]
ΚΠ
1574 E. Hellowes tr. A. de Guevara Familiar Epist. 205 Hell is full of good desires; and heauen is full of good workes.]
a1633 G. Herbert Outlandish Prov. (1640) sig. A7v Hell is full of good meanings and wishings.
1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία 203 It is a saying among Divines, that Hell is full of good Intentions, and Meanings.
1775 S. Johnson in J. Boswell Life Johnson (1887) II. 360 Sir, Hell is paved with good intentions.
1847 J. A. Froude Shadows of Clouds ix I shall have nothing to hand in, exception intentions,—what they say the road to the wrong place is paved with.]
1855 H. G. Bohn Hand-bk. Prov. 514 The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
1903 E. Fawcett Voices & Visions 36 Hell 's paved, they say, with intentions good.
2004 Canad. Public Policy 30 234/2 The road to debt, like the road to hell, is often paved with good intentions.
Categories »
c. from Hell, Hull, and Halifax, Good Lord, deliver us: see Halifax n.
d. hell hath no fury (like a woman scorned) and variants. Cf. also woman scorned n. at woman n. Phrases 3c.
ΚΠ
1697 W. Congreve Mourning Bride iii. i. 41 Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.
1816 E. Thomas Purity of Heart viii. 132 Yes, I will publish, I will print, I will sell; yes, every thing shall be exposed... Hell has no fury like a woman scorned; I don't care for decency.
1886 M. H. E. Bates Chamber over Gate xxvi. 363 You know ‘Hell hath no fury’, etc. If your wife should ever wake up to the true state of the case..I'm afraid she'd be an ugly customer.
1923 Modesto (Calif.) Evening News 5 Dec. Hell hath no fury like a woman when you track mud into her house.
1940 G. H. Coxe Glass Triangle x. 126 If you really want to know who could have wanted to kill him, you might as well start with me... You've heard that one about hell having no fury like a woman scorned? Well, that was me.
1973 I. Murdoch Black Prince 330 ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’ In a way I might have been flattered.
1999 S. Turow Personal Injuries 389 Hell hath no fury. She's sky-high cause I gave her two weeks' notice.
2007 Mirror (Nexis) 17 May 14 They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, well Katie has the bit between her teeth and she's on the war path.
P2. In various phrases and other proverbs. Frequently in hell on earth.
ΚΠ
1579 in M. Sellers York Mercers & Merchant Adventurers (1918) 219 Wee shall have..brawles, and suspitions amongest us, as if weare to begin hell uponn earthe.
1590 J. Smythe Certain Disc. Weapons Proeme *iij b They verifie the olde Proverb, which is, That such as were never but in Hell, doo thinke that there is no other Heaven.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary iii. 53 England..is said to be the Hell of Horses, the Purgatory of Servants, and the Paradise of Weomen.
1640 H. Mill Nights Search i. 8 He sets out sin (most lively) black as hell.
1780 W. Cowper Progress of Error 609 He that will be cheated to the last, Delusions strong as Hell shall bind him fast.
1785 W. Cowper Task v. 862 Fables false as hell..lure down to death The uninformed and heedless souls of men.
1785 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue Cabbage, cloth, stuff, or silk purloined by taylors from their employers, which they deposit in a place called hell..when taxed with their knavery, they equivocally swear, that if they have taken any, they wish they may find it in hell.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1871) I. iii. 207 The prisons were hells on earth.
1942 J. Thurber Lett. (2002) 351 All hell was pretty sure to happen and it did—adhesions, recurrence of iritis and all the trimmings.
1997 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Apr. 352/2 All the food..came ‘laser-fried’, whatever the hell that means.
P3. In imprecations and expressions of impatience, irritation, or disagreement.
a. General uses.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > statement > dissent or disagreement > [noun] > expression of
non placet1589
hell1605
1605 G. Chapman et al. Eastward Hoe iv. sig. F2v What! landed at Cuckolds hauen? Hell and damnation.
1678 J. Dryden All for Love ii. 22 Hell, Death; this Eunuch Pandar ruins you. You will not see her?
1842 J. Wilson Streams in Ess. (1856) 39 Not, at least, for mine—no—hell and furies! not for mine!
1893 St. Louis Republic 8 July 16/3 The dealer..said: ‘Say, Rick, do you know this gentleman? He's been playing mighty lucky.’ Rickebaugh glanced at the great stack of chips..and sarcastically remarked: ‘Lucky h—!’
1919 Thrill Bk. 1 May 13/1 ‘Mister!’ I corrected him in his own tone... ‘Mister, was it?’ he rumbled... ‘Mister—hell!’
2004 T. Tuohy in M. Hickey Irish Days 256 Well, after them times, there was the Black and Tans and it was holy hell. Holy hell.
b. to go to hell. Cf. to go to the devil at devil n. Phrases 1b(b).
ΚΠ
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iii. ii. 21 Let Fortune goe to hell for it, not I. View more context for this quotation
1788 S. Low Politician Out-witted i. i Go to h—ll, if you be please.
1816 ‘Quiz’ Grand Master vi. 142 Gentlemen, you may go to H—ll.
1836 M. Scott Cruise of Midge iii. 41 So, good men, go to hell all of you.
1905 Macmillan's Mag. Nov. 68 Sergeant Chambers shouted back, ‘Go to hell!’ and to his men he cried, ‘Stick it!’
1925 E. Fraser & J. Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 150 Mafeesh, (Arabic). Dead. Done with. Finished. Used colloquially everywhere on Eastern Fronts... It had other meanings: ‘I can't’, ‘I know’, ‘Get out’, ‘Go to hell’, [etc.].
1975 J. Wambaugh Choirboys vi. 61 Then he turned to Murray Fern and said, ‘Name?’ ‘Go to hell,’ the arrestee answered.
2006 G. Malkani Londonstani xxii. 281 For a woman who'd said Reena's family, friends an loved ones could all go to Hell for all she cared, Arun's mum is doing a pretty good job a looking all cut up.
c. the hell (with) ——. Also to hell (with) ——.
ΚΠ
1602 B. Jonson Poetaster i. iii. sig. B4 The hell thou wilt. what, turne Law into verse? View more context for this quotation
1899 J. Schaefer in D. Ward Great Short Novels Amer. West (1962) 201 I been thinking too we ought to say to hell with the whole kit and caboodle of them.
1912 Z. Grey Riders of Purple Sage i. 10 To hell with your Mormon law!
1925 N. Coward Fallen Angels iii. 83 Maurice: We are great friends—they confide in me. Fred: The hell they do!
1957 New Yorker 5 Oct. 37/2 ‘The hell with organization,’ Todd said.
1966 ‘J. Hackston’ Father clears Out 61 To hell with the flaming place.
1992 D. Lessing Afr. Laughter 218 A young couple, charming products of Mrs Thatcher's Britain, were driving proudly around in a Porsche with a car-sticker that said, To Hell With The Poor!
2001 R. Joshi Last Jet Engine Laugh (2002) 69 Remember Sherman apartments and Zeenie? Well, the hell with Zeenie aunty, but do you remember me telling you about Sandhya?
d. by hell. Cf. by God at god n. and int. Phrases 3a.
ΚΠ
1691 J. Dryden King Arthur ii. 12 By Hell she sings 'em back, in my despight.
1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle II. lxxvi. 303 By hell and brimstone! I shall expect other sort of satisfaction.
1977 J. Rosenthal Spend, Spend, Spend in Bar Mitzvah Boy & Other Television Plays (1987) 220 By hell..the jam butties I used to kiss in bed, as a kid. Wondering who'd I'd marry.
2003 C. Birch Turn again Home xxx. 346 By Hell, she was thinking, he'll do what he promised. I've got this over him now.
e. Following a verb (often a modal auxiliary) and pronoun in inverted interrogative construction, as does it hell, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [noun] > quality or fact of being extreme > something exceedingly great in degree
the utter1584
swinger1599
a devil of a ——1604
thumper1660
whisker1668
a (also the, one) hell of a ——c1680
swapperc1700
spanker1751
whopper1785
whacker1825
whanger1825
utmost1856
howler1872
hell1931
1931 E. Linklater Juan in Amer. ii. xvii. 183 ‘We'll all see her,’ shouted the Snake's Hips. ‘Will you hell!’ said Rosy.
1934 G. B. Shaw Too True to be Good i. 46 The Patient... Doesnt that tempt you? The Nurse. Tempt me hell! I'll see you further first.
1953 T. A. G. Hungerford Riverslake 35 ‘Is he a wine-dot?’ ‘Is he hell!.. He's never off it.’
1962 Sunday Express 1 Apr. 19/5 Am I dressed for ease and comfort? Am I hell?
1991 M. S. Power Come the Executioner (1992) x. 83 Robert smiled wider and shook his head. ‘It suits you,’ he said. ‘Does it hell!’
2003 S. Mawer Fall (2004) xix. 325 And then, what is this? A bit of snow. Have we ever climbed in snow in Scotland. Have we hell, and harder than this.
P4.
a. a (also the, one) hell of a ——: a terrible ——; an exceedingly bad (also great, loud, etc.) ——; cf. a devil of a —— at devil n. Phrases 1g, helluva adj., one adj. 3c(b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [noun] > quality or fact of being extreme > something exceedingly great in degree
the utter1584
swinger1599
a devil of a ——1604
thumper1660
whisker1668
a (also the, one) hell of a ——c1680
swapperc1700
spanker1751
whopper1785
whacker1825
whanger1825
utmost1856
howler1872
hell1931
c1680 in E. J. Burford Bawdy Verse (1982) 172 Old Nick, I am sure, would not be a Whore, It's grown such a Hell of a calling.
1776 J. Leacock Fall Brit. Tyranny iv. vii. 52 This is a hell of a council of war.
1810 Morning Post 26 June in Spirit of Public Jrnls. (1811) 14 278 They all knew what a hell of a row had been kicked up.
1859 G. A. Jackson Diary 521 Dogs killed him after I had broken his back with belt axe; h—l of a fight.
1897 ‘M. Twain’ Following Equator xxxi It's a charming town, with a hell of a hotel... It's the worst hotel in Australia.
1923 C. E. Mulford Black Buttes ii. 24 He was a hell of a trail-boss, an' he had a hell of an outfit, if you leave it to me!
1942 N. Coward Blithe Spirit i. ii. 34 Pedalling off down the drive at the hell of a speed.
1969 New Yorker 14 June 44/3 His forehand is a hell of a weapon.
1987 K. Vonnegut Bluebeard (1988) vii. 59 I had become one hell of a good artist.
2010 K. L. Seegers tr. D. Meyer 13 Hours x. 79 Yesterday afternoon Josh Geyser came running in at a hell of a speed..and just about broke my office door down.
b.
(a) as (all) hell: (as an intensifier) very, extremely.
ΚΠ
1768–70 in J. H. Mead Sea Shanties & Fo'c'sle Songs (Ph.D. thesis, Univ. Kentucky) (1973) 619 Got Drunk as all Hell.
1840 Spirit of Times 7 Mar. 8 Good as hell.
1873 P. T. Barnum Struggles & Triumphs xv. 246 It is cold as hell this morning.
1894 H. A. Vachell in Overland Monthly & Out West Mag. Nov. 506/2 Then I get mad as hell.
1936 D. Thomas Let. 21 Aug. (1985) 236 I'm not dead or poxed..; just depressed as hell.
1984 I. Doig Eng. Creek (1985) iii. 316 I'm sorry as all hell to butt into your war council.
2006 Guardian 12 June ii. 16/1 Characters who are..sexy as hell.
(b) (as) sure as hell: absolutely, surely; without a doubt.
ΚΠ
1802 T. Burnet Poems Var. Subj. 100 John one night dressing some drunk Beaux, Slipt calmly off with some fine clothes. ‘By Gad!’ says he, ‘they suit me well. I'll have a Fortune—sure as hell!’
1860 Atlantic Monthly Jan. 46/2 Colonel Casey, a hard-faced, one-armed man, spurred past towards Rivas, saying, as he went, that our men were in the plaza, the greasers were running, and ‘we had 'em, sure as hell!’
1939 Street & Smith's Western Story Mag. 23 Sept. 69/1 You saved my bacon then, Bart. Sure as hell you did!
1976 Listener 6 May 562/3 Wayne..introduces me to Commemorativo Tequilla. ‘It doesn't hurt your head, but it may hurt your back, as you sure as hell fall over a lot.’
1988 R. Doyle Commitments (1991) 145 I'd say he'll come though.—I sure as hell hope so.
2004 H. Strachan Make a Skyf, Man! v. 51 One thing we're sure as hell not going to do is leave this stuff standing where we left it.
c. like hell: (a) (as an intensifier) desperately; extremely, very much; (b) indicating contradiction: not at all, on the contrary.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [phrase] > nothing, no one, not any > not at all
na whonc1275
at all1476
no point1542
like hell1776
not‥a speck1843
not‥a hang1861
my fanny1935
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > greatly or very much [phrase] > extremely
like mada1375
with a mischief1538
(as) — as anything1542
with a vengeance1568
with a siserary1607
(to be pleased) to a feathera1616
in (the) extremea1616
with the vengeance1693
to a degree1740
like hell1776
like the devil1791
like winky1830
like billy-o1885
(like) seven shades of ——1919
like a bandit1943
on wheels1943
1776 H. H. Brackenridge Battle of Bunkers-Hill v. iv. 28 With these rude Britons, wage life-scorning war, 'Till they admit it, and like hell fall off.
1813 M. L. Weems Drunkard's Looking Glass (ed. 2) 5 He loves you like h ll.
1854 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes I. xxix. 286 I tried every place..and played like hell.
1892 R. Kipling Lett. of Trav. (1920) 66 ‘Hit, old man?’ ‘Like hell,’ he said.
1925 ‘F. Lonsdale’ Last of Mrs. Cheyney i. 19 Maria: Enjoying the concert, Willie? Willie: Like hell!
1931 Amer. Speech 7 433 I hate like hell to do this.
1941 H. MacInnes Above Suspicion ix. 76 ‘I've quite enjoyed it here.’ Like hell I have, she added under her breath.
1992 Daily Mail (Nexis) 16 Nov. 49 My foot hurts like hell.
d. what (also who, why, how, etc.) the (also in) hell: (as an intensifier) expressing incredulity, amazement, annoyance, etc. Cf. what-the-hell adj.
ΚΠ
1785 Proc. Old Bailey 29 June 925/2 How the hell came you here, she said.
1800 C. Macpherson Mem. Life & Trav. 81 Why, boy! you are a d—d favourite with the women already; I don't know what the hell you'll be by and bye.
1836 F. Marryat Mr. Midshipman Easy II. ii. 55 What the hell are you making such a howling about?
1874 J. Miller Unwritten Hist.: Life amongst Modocs (new ed.) v. 78 What in hell are you doing here anyhow?
1902 R. H. Davis Capt. Macklin 295 ‘Then why in hell didn't you say so!’ he roared.
1925 New Yorker 22 Aug. 5/1 Where the hell is my comb?
1942 N. Coward Blithe Spirit i. ii. 42 Mrs. Bradman: Ought we to pick it up or leave it where it is? Dr. Bradman: How the hell do I know?
1958 Engineering 4 Apr. 425/1 Why the hell haven't we got a computer?
1968 Landfall 22 195 Why in hell didn't you get John to build it for you?
1999 B. Zephaniah Face (2003) 184 Who the hell wants my face in the paper? I'm ugly.
e. (all) to hell: very much, a great deal; really; frequently in to hope (also wish) to hell.
ΚΠ
1826 A. Cunningham Paul Jones II. v. 137 I wish to hell that old Dame Kittrick had been kept from its cauldrons.
1870 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 40/2 If I were that..humbug I should begin to be jealous;..I hope to hell he is.
1914 Coshocton (Ohio) Morning Tribune 8 June 3/1 I wish to hell it was.
1962 P. Gregory Like Tigress at Bay vi. 70 I wish to hell I was out of it.
1966 P. St. Pierre Breaking Smith's Quarter Horse 103 The bouncer apologized all to hell.
2000 Express & Echo (Nexis) 31 Oct. 11 Last weekend it [sc. the factory] was stinking to hell and something has to be done.
f. to hell and back (again): to the greatest or an overwhelming extent; for a very long way; forever.
ΚΠ
1844 Subterranean 14 Dec. 4/3 To set off Bascom's preaching talents, Clay remarked that Bascom ‘could preach his rival to hell and back again, in less than no time!’
1866 F. Moore Anecd., Poetry & Incidents of War 217/1 Fight the Southern Confederacy to hell and back.
1888 Christian Advocate 19 Jan. 39/3 A few days ago I heard a young man say to a companion who complained of a slight lameness in walking ‘I can walk to hell and back’.
a1979 B. D'J. Pancake Stories (1983) 137 She's totaled to hell and back, but the engine's perfect.
1997 J. Noon in S. Champion Disco Biscuits 180 The latest twelve-inchers, scratching them to hell and back and mixing like a maniac on the twindecks.
g. hell's own: very extreme or severe; a terrible or very difficult ——.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > quantity > greatness of quantity, amount, or degree > high or intense degree > [adverb] > extremely or exceedingly
swithlyc888
micklelyeOE
swith971
hardOE
un-i-fohOE
sevenfoldlOE
unmeet?c1225
innerlyc1330
horribly1340
too1340
sore1474
horriblec1475
vehemently1483
outrageous1487
done?a1513
exquisite1529
strangely1532
exceeding1535
exceedingly1535
angardlyc1540
angerlyc1540
choicec1540
vengeable1542
vengeably?1550
extremelya1554
monstrous1569
thrice1579
amain1587
extremea1591
damnably1598
fellc1600
tyrannically1602
exquisitely1603
damnedly1607
preciously1607
damnablea1616
impensively1620
excellingly1621
main1632
fearful1634
vengeancelya1640
upsy1650
impensely1657
twadding1657
vastly1664
hideous1667
mainly1670
consumed1707
consumedly1707
outrageously1749
damned1757
nation1771
shockingly1777
deuced1779
darn1789
darned1807
felly1807
varsal1814
awful1816
awfy1816
frightfully1816
deucedly1819
dogged1819
awfully1820
gallowsa1823
shocking1831
tremendously1832
everlasting1833
terribly1833
fearfully1835
ripping1838
poison1840
thundering1853
frighteninglyc1854
raring1854
hell's own1863
goldarned1866
goddamned1870
doggone1871
acutely1872
whooping1874
stupidly1878
everlastingly1879
hideously1882
densely1883
storming1883
good and1885
thunderingly1885
crazy1887
tremendous1887
madly1888
goldarn1892
howling1895
murderously1916
rasted1919
goddam1921
bitchingly1923
Christly1923
bitching1929
falling-down1930
lousy1932
appallingly1937
stratospherically1941
Christ almighty1945
effing1945
focking1956
dagnab1961
drop-dead1980
hella1987
totes2006
1863 Harper's Mag. Sept. 477/2 This is hell's own cruelty, Dr. Susan! This is slow, deliberate murder.
1899 H. Garland Trail of Goldseekers xiii. 120 We're in fer hell's own time fer feed til we reach them prairies.
1915 Times 14 Oct. 11/5 Can you imagine the ordinary battle pictures of troops advancing under hell's own shell fire?
1926 E. Hemingway Fiesta (1927) i. vii. 65 You've got hell's own drag with the concierge.
1997 Washington Post (Nexis) 3 Oct. (Style section) b3 She has Hell's own time keeping any kind of job.
h. to hell and gone: (a) to ruin or destruction; (b) a great distance, very far away; endlessly. Similarly (the) hell and gone: a great distance.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > distance > [phrase] > a long way
to hell and gone1863
the world > time > duration > eternity or infinite duration > eternity [phrase] > eternally or for ever
(on, to) worulde (a) butan endeOE
on (also in, þurh, geond) ealra worulda woruldOE
(baith) heir and hyne1567
when (also till, until) hell freezes (over)1832
to hell and gone1863
1863 W. W. Lind Let. 27 Dec. in H. C. Lind Long Road Home (1992) iv. 151 Tom the sailor knocked him to hell and gone.
1880 Globe (Atchison, Kansas) 17 Mar. He will drive them to hell and gone if they don't pay him.
1908 R. D. Paine Stroke Oar 142 If they take you to hell-and-gone, obey my orders.
1944 N. Mailer in E. Seaver Cross-section 332 Picking up two-foot piles of plates and lugging them to hell and gone.
1963 J. N. Harris Weird World Wes Beattie (1966) i. 14 Mr Potter phoned me—I live hell and gone out in Port Credit—and said to come in.
1986 P. Stratford tr. A. Maillet Devil is Loose! (1987) iv. 191 Caraquet was the hell and gone away at the other side of the country.
2007 Toronto Star (Nexis) 27 Feb. a27 It [sc. a raccoon] busted my green bin open and spread gunk from here to hell and gone?
i. what the hell: ‘it doesn't matter’, ‘who cares’; ‘so what?’ Cf. what-the-hell adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > unimportance > be of no importance [phrase]
forcec1330
no wardc1330
no strength1340
no forcec1369
no mattera1466
what force?a1513
no skill1575
what matter?1678
the game (play, etc.) is not worth the candlea1699
nix my dolly1795
what the hell1872
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch II. iii. xxiii. 21 But, what the hell! the horse was a penny trumpet to that roarer of yours.
1975 S. Selvon Moses Ascending 128 ‘Perhaps we can spring a little surprise party for them?’ It sounded like gilding the lily, but what the hell.
j. Originally North American colloquial. —— from hell: (with neutral or positive meaning) a particularly impressive or formidable example or instance of ——; (also with negative force) an exceptionally unpleasant or bad example or instance of ——.
ΚΠ
1902 L. McKee Land of Nome 178 I felt that I had received a very high compliment..when an old-timer in the party..told me that I was a ‘musher from hell’.
1965 W. King in Liberator Aug. 22 Mac's copping me a number [sc. a marijuana cigarette] from hell for a nickel!
1987 G. Larson Far Side Observer 7/1 (caption) If we could get this baby runnin', we could run over hikers, pick up females, chase down deer—man, we'd be the grizzlies from hell.
1994 Sugar Nov. 81/1 She returned from trawling the junk shops with the Curtains from Hell—dark purple and green tie-dyed horrors that soaked up more daylight.
2001 Independent 13 Aug. 6/1 Council tenants who racially harass asylum-seekers will face fast-track eviction under government plans to combat so-called neighbours from hell.
k. (just) for the hell of it: for amusement, for fun; (also) for no good reason.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > mere amusement > [adverb]
of or on the spleenc1460
for love1678
for fun1750
for the fun of the thing1751
for the fun of it1823
good for a laugh1835
for the ride1863
(just) for the hell of it1908
pour le sport1924
for (the) shits and giggles (also grins)1983
1908 Z. Gray Last of Plainsmen x. 175 ‘Buff, we've got 'em,’ cried Rea; ‘an' now for the hell of it—gettin' 'em home.’
1921 J. Dos Passos Three Soldiers i. 15 Mabe I'd done it juss for the hell of it, an' that I didn't mean nawthin' by it.
1951 W. Stevens Let. 7 Sept. (1967) 726 I assume that he is merely doing it for the hell of it.
2005 B. Rai Whisper xxiii. 169 Thirteen-year-olds on the prowl, looking for people to mash up just for the hell of it.
P5. With verbs.
a.
(a) to play hell (with): to upset, confuse; to cause trouble (for); to make a fuss.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > cause of mental pain or suffering > be painful or distressing to a person [verb (intransitive)]
to claw, rub, hit on the gallc1386
smarta1400
rankle1735
to play hell (with)1750
gnaw1859
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > cause or effect (harm) [verb (transitive)] > do harm or injury to > cause great harm to
to play hell (with)1750
to make havoc1812
to play Old Harry with1837
to play the bear1854
to play hell and Tommy1859
to play buggery1898
to play havoc1910
the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > act or do vigorously [verb (intransitive)] > be brisk or active > bustle > fuss or make a fuss
nytelc1400
to make a matter1549
to keep a coil1568
squatter1593
fiddle-faddle1633
to play hell (with)1750
fuss1792
to play hell and Tommy1825
piggle1836
palavera1840
to make a time1844
to make a time1844
friggle1848
fussify1868
to make a production of (or out of)1941
1750 G. S. Green Wisdom 24 Men of such silly pretences..will, when in power, play Hell and the Devil.
1803 G. Colman John Bull iii. ii. 52 I'll be good to the landlord, but I'll play hell with his wife.
1927 H. Crane Let. 19 Dec. (1965) 312 Port every night for dinner is playing hell with my waistline.
1960 L. Cooper Accomplices ii. v. 119 The firm..wanted delivery and were playing hell about it.
2005 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 22 Aug. 21 The railway had been on to him because the drivers were always stopping to admire his wonderful furrows and it was playing hell with the timetables.
(b) to raise (also kick up, play, etc.) merry hell and variants: to create a disturbance or upheaval; to cause great trouble, pain, or suffering.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > excitement > riotous excitement > behave with riotous excitement [verb (intransitive)]
rehayte1526
tear1602
to play up1849
to whoop things up1873
to raise sand1892
to raise (also kick up, play, etc.) merry hell1931
to go ape1955
to go (also drive) bananas1957
1821 P. Egan Real Life in London I. 195 So drunk, that they keep merry hell in a roar.]
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. xi. 279 We don't dare let you off... They'd send down along the line, to have merry hell raised with us.
1931 D. L. Sayers Five Red Herrings xxii. 248 I am supposed to have faked an alibi, suborned my friends and played merry hell generally.
1938 S. V. Benét Thirteen o'Clock iv. 268 If you think it was all romance..you're wrong. A lot of it was merry hell.
1963 Landfall Mar. 9 Watching mum with a shoehorn wedging nines into sevens and suffering merry hell.
1992 S. King Dolores Claiborne (1993) 19 Your wife would give you merry hell about buying that day-old bread.
b. see you in hell: (a) used as an imprecation expressing ill will or hatred; (b) (with will and before, first, etc.) indicating that the speaker will never do something (as specified); also with other pronouns.
ΚΠ
1715 Proc. Old Bailey 5 Dec. 6/2 Saying G—d D—n him, twenty times over, and the High Constable too; he should see them all in Hell.
1842 Times 9 Nov. 2/6 When leaving the palace he saw two or three fellows in the street opposite to it, one of whom said to him ‘I hope I shall see you in hell.’
1879 Denton (Maryland) Jrnl. 16 Aug. I'll see you in hell before I vote for Charlie Lake, or any other Democrat.
1923 C. E. Mulford Black Buttes 265 He says..he'll see us both in hell before he'll pay a plugged peso.
1951 Post-Standard (Syracuse. N.Y.) 13 Dec. 4/2 Teitelbaum..said he wasn't going to pay a penny and that ‘he'd see them in hell first’.
2007 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 21 Jan. 50 ‘See You in Hell’ he sneered to two fellow death-row inmates he couldn't stand.
c. hell to pay: great trouble, discord, pandemonium, esp. as a result of a previous or proposed action.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > adversity > [noun] > tribulation, trouble, or affliction
teeneOE
harmOE
sourc1000
trayOE
angec1175
wosithc1200
ail?c1225
barrat?c1225
misease?c1225
passion?c1225
troublec1230
sorenessc1275
grievancea1300
cumbermentc1300
cumbering1303
thro1303
angera1325
strifea1325
sweama1325
encumbrancec1330
tribulationc1330
threst1340
mischiefa1375
pressc1375
unhend1377
miseasetya1382
angernessc1390
molestc1390
troublancec1400
notea1425
miseasenessc1450
cumber?a1513
tribule1513
unseasonableness?1523
troublesomeness1561
tribulance1575
tine1590
trials and tribulations1591
pressure1648
difficulty1667
hell to pay1758
dree1791
trial and tribulation1792
Queer Street1811
Sturm und Drang1857
a thin time1924
shit1929
crap1932
shtook1936
the world > action or operation > adversity > in adversity [phrase] > great trouble
hell to pay1758
society > society and the community > dissent > [noun] > great dissension
hell to pay1758
1758 Misc. & Whimsical Lubrications Lancelot Poverty-struck 84 Before that either gain'd the Day, By Heaven! there was Hell to pay.
1811 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1838) VIII. 235 Unless the design has been altered..we shall have the Emperor in Spain and hell to pay before much time elapses.
1894 Overland Monthly July 84/1 There'll be hell to pay if he goes off the handle again.
1956 A. J. Wallis & C. F. Blair Thunder Above (1959) iv. 42 I got you all in this mess... There'll be hell to pay.
1997 Internat. Security 21 6 If America's vital interests are challenged, there should be hell to pay.
d. when (also till, until) hell freezes (over): at some date in the impossibly distant future; for ever; never.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > eternity or infinite duration > eternity [phrase] > eternally or for ever
(on, to) worulde (a) butan endeOE
on (also in, þurh, geond) ealra worulda woruldOE
(baith) heir and hyne1567
when (also till, until) hell freezes (over)1832
to hell and gone1863
1832 Evangelical Mag. & Gospel Advocate 4 Feb. 38/3 This week we received another paper returned from the same [post] office..on the margin of which is written, ‘Stop this paper or send it to Syracuse, where [the subscriber now] lives. Baldwinsville, Onon. co. N.Y. I shall send it back until hell freezes over, but what I will stop it [sic].’
1863 D. A. Mahony Prisoner of State 235 We will fight you barefooted till hell freezes over.
1897 Atlantic Monthly Dec. 811/2 They'll stand now till hell freezes over.
1919 J. A. Fisher Let. 13 June in Henry Bristow Ltd. Catal. (1973) No. 203. 9 Yours till hell freezes.
1949 Romance Philol. 2 105 We have the meaning ‘forever’ in ‘I'll wait until Hell freezes over’ and the meaning ‘never’ in ‘I'll do it when Hell freezes over’.
1961 ‘A. A. Fair’ Stop at Red Light (1962) ii. 36 If their suspicions once get aroused, they'll investigate until hell freezes over.
1999 J. Jackson Cure for Gravity 24 It's not so much that the power of music can't be explained. You can explain it..and talk about it till hell freezes over, and it's still a mystery.
2002 Village Voice (N.Y.) 4 Dec. 46/1 ‘I saw a billboard..that said, “Looking for a Sign from God? Here's One: Ordain Women.”’ As far as the Vatican is concerned, that'll happen when hell freezes over.
e. to —— (the) hell out of (a person or thing): to —— (a person or thing) to an excessive, violent, or unpleasant degree. Cf. to —— the fuck out of (a person or thing) at fuck n. Phrases 6, living adj. 9.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > prosperity > success > mastery or superiority > have or gain mastery or superiority over [verb (transitive)] > overcome or defeat > soundly
threshc1384
to knock the socks offa1529
thump1597
thrash1609
thwacka1616
capot1649
to beat to snuff1819
to knock into a cocked hat1830
to —— (the) hell out of1833
sledgehammer1834
rout1835
whop1836
skin1838
whip-saw1842
to knock (the) spots off1850
to make mincemeat of1853
to mop (up) the floor with1875
to beat pointless1877
to lick into fits1879
to take apart1880
to knock out1883
wax1884
contund1885
to give (a person) fits1885
to wipe the floor with1887
flatten1892
to knock (someone) for six1902
slaughter1903
slather1910
to hit for six1937
hammer1948
whomp1952
bulldozer1954
zilch1957
shred1966
tank1973
slam-dunk1975
beast1977
the world > movement > impact > striking > beating or repeated striking > beat [verb (transitive)] > specifically a person
to-beatc893
threshOE
bustc1225
to lay on or upon?c1225
berrya1250
to-bunea1250
touchc1330
arrayc1380
byfrapc1380
boxc1390
swinga1400
forbeatc1420
peal?a1425
routa1425
noddlea1450
forslinger1481
wipe1523
trima1529
baste1533
waulk1533
slip1535
peppera1550
bethwack1555
kembc1566
to beat (a person) black and blue1568
beswinge1568
paik1568
trounce1568
canvass1573
swaddle?1577
bebaste1582
besoop1589
bumfeage1589
dry-beat1589
feague1589
lamback1589
clapperclaw1590
thrash1593
belam1595
lam1595
beswaddle1598
bumfeagle1598
belabour1600
tew1600
flesh-baste1611
dust1612
feeze1612
mill1612
verberate1614
bethumpa1616
rebuke1619
bemaul1620
tabor1624
maula1627
batterfang1630
dry-baste1630
lambaste1637
thunder-thump1637
cullis1639
dry-banga1640
nuddle1640
sauce1651
feak1652
cotton1654
fustigate1656
brush1665
squab1668
raddle1677
to tan (a person's) hide1679
slam1691
bebump1694
to give (a person) his load1694
fag1699
towel1705
to kick a person's butt1741
fum1790
devel1807
bray1808
to beat (also scare, etc.) someone's daylights out1813
mug1818
to knock (a person) into the middle of next week1821
welt1823
hidea1825
slate1825
targe1825
wallop1825
pounce1827
to lay into1838
flake1841
muzzle1843
paste1846
looder1850
frail1851
snake1859
fettle1863
to do over1866
jacket1875
to knock seven kinds of —— out of (a person)1877
to take apart1880
splatter1881
to beat (knock, etc.) the tar out of1884
to —— the shit out of (a person or thing)1886
to do up1887
to —— (the) hell out of1887
to beat — bells out of a person1890
soak1892
to punch out1893
stoush1893
to work over1903
to beat up1907
to punch up1907
cream1929
shellac1930
to —— the bejesus out of (a person or thing)1931
duff1943
clobber1944
to fill in1948
to bash up1954
to —— seven shades of —— out of (a person or thing)1976
to —— seven shades out of (a person or thing)1983
beast1990
becurry-
fan-
1833 J. E. Alexander Transatlantic Sketches II. i. 4 ‘They won't be able to face you..without a fleet.’ ‘Oh! tarnation, no..nothing under high heaven; we will knock h—ll out of them.’
1863 D. Butterfield Let. 10 Oct. in War of Rebellion (U.S. War Dept.) (1890) 1st Ser. XXX. iv. 261 Your infantry should be able to smash hell out of twelve companies of cavalry.
1887 W. P. Lane Advent 61 Clark..had promised to ‘whale h—l out of him’ if he said another word.
1925 T. A. Boyd Points of Honor 50 Then I set out to kick hell out of 'im. I'd a done it too if they hadn't a ganged up on me.
1937 E. Ambler Uncommon Danger viii. 110 Are you going to be sensible or do I knock hell out of you first?
1958 P. Scott Mark of Warrior ii. 166 How did we interrogate Mr Baksh? Beat the hell out of him, I hope?
1965 Times 15 Apr. 12/1 Given the response of which our people are capable..we shall be ready to knock hell out of you.
1971 Boating May 107/1 It would have bothered the hell out of me to see our grand old lady endlessly slamming against her dock.
1986 P. Theroux O-zone vii. 91 Rules can scare the hell out of me.
f. to give (a person) hell: (a) to give (a person) an unpleasant time, to make (a person) suffer; (b) to give (a person) one's best effort.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > [verb (transitive)] > severely
visita1382
to-punisha1400
overpunisha1639
to give (a person) hell1836
to give a person what for1852
slate1854
to give it in the neck1881
to come down1888
bean1910
scrub1911
cane1925
to gie (or give) (someone) laldy1935
1836 H. R. Howard Hist. Virgil A. Stewart x. 140 When we get him back into the Mississippi morass we will give him hell.
1863 O. W. Norton Army Lett. (1903) 161 We have met the enemy and given them hell.
a1917 E. A. Mackintosh War, the Liberator (1918) 141 You swine, I'll give you hell for this.
1952 Independent (Long Beach, Calif.) 8 Oct. 2/6 The crowd cheered ‘give them hell, John.’
1984 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 29 May b1 Mr. Blevins wrote of how proud he was and said they should ‘give 'em hell’.
2006 Irish Times (Nexis) 19 Aug. 16 After a night of dancing their high heels are giving them hell on the walk home.
g. to raise hell: to cause great trouble; to create chaos. Cf. raise v.1 22b.The slogan ‘Kansas should raise less corn and more hell’ is attributed to Mrs Mary Ellen Lease (1853–1933) but proof is lacking. See Kansas Quarterly Fall 1969, 52–58.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > confusion or disorder > commotion, disturbance, or disorder > be in commotion or disorder [verb (intransitive)] > cause commotion or disorder
to make work?1473
perturb1543
hurly-burly1598
to throw (also fling) the house out of (also at) the window (also windows)1602
tumultuate1611
to beat up the quarters of1670
hurricane1682
larum1729
to kick up, make, raise a stour1787
stour1811
to strike a bustle1823
to cut shindies1829
to kick up a shindy1829
hurricanize1833
rumpus1839
to raise (Old) Ned1840
to raise hell1845
fustle1891
to rock the boat1903
1845 in F. Oehlschlaeger Old Southwest Humor from St. Louis Reveille (1990) 117 Jake was off a raisin' h—l.
1896 Emporia (Kansas) Weekly Gaz. 20 Aug. We have decided to send three or four harpies out lecturing, telling the people that Kansas is raising hell and letting the corn go to weeds.
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. viii. 214 What hell Jim will raise if he finds I spent the night working in this house.
1990 U.S. News & World Rep. 17 Dec. 90 I said I was going to raise hell on the field and off.
h. Originally and chiefly North American. to be hell on.
(a) = to be death on (also upon) at death n. Phrases 14. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1850 Congr. Globe App. 91 ‘It will make her look so dignified.’ ‘I'll certainly buy it, then,..for mammy has always been hell on dignity.’
1904 R. W. Chambers In Search of Unknown in Yellow Sign & Other Stories (2004) 392 Kinder lost his spirit... He was hell on rats—once!
1922 W. D. Foulke Hoosier Autobiogr. 124 He was..like the doctor who burned every wound or sore given him to heal, because he was ‘hell on burns’.
1990 J. Stacy in B. Crow Jazz Anecd. 260 He was hell on intonation, too. Between each set he had me pounding A's on the piano so the saxes and trumpets could be perfectly in tune.
(b) To be extremely bad or unpleasant for; to be tough on.
ΚΠ
1881 Hist. Sangamon County, Illinois 456/2 It was once shortly and pungently said that ‘Illinois was hell on oxen and women.’
1903 L. Hubbard Diary 29 Aug. in M. Hubbard Woman's Way through Unknown Labrador (1908) 262 Outlet hunting is hell on nerves, temper and equanimity.
1930 in C. G. Dawes Jrnl. as Ambassador to Great Brit. (1939) 247 Diplomacy is not hard on the brain, but it is hell on the feet.
2003 Wired July 110/1 Nearly everyone agrees that burning oil is hell on the environment.
i. to get hell: to be severely punished; to be reprimanded. Similarly (chiefly North American) to catch hell.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > contempt > disapproval > rebuke or reproof > rebuke or reprove [verb (intransitive)] > be rebuked or scolded
to hear of it1598
to get on (also upon) the finger ends1693
to get one's lug in one's loof1744
to get wrong1803
to catch or get Jesse1839
to come in for it1841
to get hell1851
to cop (also stop, catch, get, etc.) a packet1916
to have a strip torn off1940
1851 Rep. Great Conspiracy Case 75 He heard..that the company would be glad by and by to pay up for cattle, or if they did not they would ‘catch hell’.
1876 W. E. Smith Diary in S. L. Smith Sagebrush Soldier (1989) 101 I now expected to git hell all a round.
1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart iii. iv. 382 ‘I was using the telephone in Miss Paullie's study, and she came in and caught me.’.. ‘So then you got hell, I suppose.’
1970 G. Scott-Heron Vulture iii. 132 We don't catch hell because we are from Brooklyn or the Bronx. We catch hell because we are black.
1993 S. Brucan Wasted Generation xi. 193 I was getting hell from both sides.
j. to go to (also through) hell and back (again) and variants: to endure a highly distressing experience; to go through a very difficult time, sometimes with the implication of having survived the experience (relatively) unscathed. Cf. to hell and back (again) at Phrases 4f.
ΚΠ
1863 Ladies' Repository June 325/2 When accosted he affirmed that the horses had broken out, and that if they broke out again he would dog them to hell and back again.
1899 W. L. Sawyer Local Habitation xii. 200 I can tell you how to achieve a great novel... Go through hell and back again, and write the story in your own heart's blood.
1902 R. H. Davis Ranson's Folly 202 He had been to hell and back again in twenty minutes.
1963 I. Howe World more Attractive 100 He..had been to hell and back, many times over.
1989 M. Richler Solomon Gursky was Here (1990) v. 164 Nick and I have been through hell and back again together. Sweeping Normandy clean of Nazi punks.
2006 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 21 May 31 She has..been to hell and back with drink, drugs and turbulent relationships.
k. Originally and chiefly North American. to go to hell in a handbasket (also handcart, etc.) : to deteriorate, esp. rapidly. Also to send to hell in a handbasket and other variants.
ΚΠ
1865 I. W. Ayer Great North-Western Conspiracy ix. 47 Thousands of our best men were prisoners in Camp Douglas, and if once at liberty would ‘send abolitionists to hell in a hand basket’.
1898 W. C. Brann Brann the Iconoclast I. 227 These are the unhung idiots who imagine that a nation..would go to hell in a handbasket if it adopted an independent currency system.
1969 E. Connell Mr Bridge xcix. 261 Virgil says the country is going to hell in a basket. Is that so?
1974 Times 19 Jan. 2/4 No amount of dithering and double talk..could disguise the fact that the British economy was going to hell in a handcart.
2004 G. Nunberg Going Nucl. Introd. p. xii The language is going to hell in a handbasket.
l. Originally U.S. hell is (a-)popping and variants: events are unfolding in a chaotic manner; a state of confusion and disarray is taking hold; ‘all hell is breaking loose’ (cf. all hell breaks loose at Phrases 1a).The use of one-word forms was popularized by the title of the 1941 U.S. film Hellzapoppin' and the 1938 theatre musical Hellzapoppin, on which this is based; cf. hellzapoppin' adj.
ΚΠ
1875 Overland Monthly Aug. 146/2 Hell's a poppin', I tell yer.
1894 Trenton (New Jersey) Times 8 Jan. A reporter asked him the latest news from Honolulu. ‘Hell is popping down there.’
1940 M. Lowry Let. Jan. in Sursum Corda! (1995) I. 269 By that time it is likely that real hell will be popping in Europe.
1945 Nebraska State Jrnl. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 20 Oct. 8/4 (heading) Hellzapopping! And all because of a football team!
1956 R. Ellison Let. 7 Nov. in R. Ellison & A. Murray Trading Twelves (2000) 152 He starts talking about the draft and bomb control just at the moment hell pops.
1991 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 1 Feb. No one's noticed, for outside hellzapoppin.
m. to get the (also to) hell out (of): to make a hasty retreat, esp. in order to avoid or preclude trouble.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going away > go away [verb (intransitive)] > go away suddenly or hastily
fleec825
runOE
swervea1225
biwevec1275
skip1338
streekc1380
warpa1400
yerna1400
smoltc1400
stepc1460
to flee (one's) touch?1515
skirr1548
rubc1550
to make awaya1566
lope1575
scuddle1577
scoura1592
to take the start1600
to walk off1604
to break awaya1616
to make off1652
to fly off1667
scuttle1681
whew1684
scamper1687
whistle off1689
brush1699
to buy a brush1699
to take (its, etc.) wing1704
decamp1751
to take (a) French leave1751
morris1765
to rush off1794
to hop the twig1797
to run along1803
scoot1805
to take off1815
speela1818
to cut (also make, take) one's lucky1821
to make (take) tracks (for)1824
absquatulize1829
mosey1829
absquatulate1830
put1834
streak1834
vamoose1834
to put out1835
cut1836
stump it1841
scratch1843
scarper1846
to vamoose the ranch1847
hook1851
shoo1851
slide1859
to cut and run1861
get1861
skedaddle1862
bolt1864
cheese it1866
to do a bunkc1870
to wake snakes1872
bunk1877
nit1882
to pull one's freight1884
fooster1892
to get the (also to) hell out (of)1892
smoke1893
mooch1899
to fly the coop1901
skyhoot1901
shemozzle1902
to light a shuck1905
to beat it1906
pooter1907
to take a run-out powder1909
blow1912
to buzz off1914
to hop it1914
skate1915
beetle1919
scram1928
amscray1931
boogie1940
skidoo1949
bug1950
do a flit1952
to do a scarper1958
to hit, split or take the breeze1959
to do a runner1980
to be (also get, go) ghost1986
1892 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 561/1 ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it does not matter a —. You may get to hell out of this.’
1895 Rep. on Police Dept. N.Y. (N.Y. State Senate Comm.) II. 2249 You people get out; get the hell out of here.
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) II. x. 257 Get the hell out... I want to sleep.
1929 E. Linklater Poet's Pub vii. 83 Get to hell out of this, you accidental offspring of a Marine sentry.
1952 ‘J. Tey’ Singing Sands ix. 139 You want her to get the hell out of here.
1961 J. Heller Catch-22 (1962) vi. 57 The only way they could get the hell out..was by flying the extra ten missions.
2004 C. Bateman Driving Big Davie iv. 33 I should have just..had a good night's sleep, woken up with a hangover, collected my car and gotten the hell out of there.
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n. hell mend: see mend v. 4a(a).
P6. With other nouns.
a. hell and tommy: disturbance; great trouble; earliest in to play hell and Tommy: to behave wildly; to cause trouble. Also as int. Cf. Phrases 5a. Now rare.
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the world > action or operation > manner of action > vigour or energy > act or do vigorously [verb (intransitive)] > be brisk or active > bustle > fuss or make a fuss
nytelc1400
to make a matter1549
to keep a coil1568
squatter1593
fiddle-faddle1633
to play hell (with)1750
fuss1792
to play hell and Tommy1825
piggle1836
palavera1840
to make a time1844
to make a time1844
friggle1848
fussify1868
to make a production of (or out of)1941
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > cause or effect (harm) [verb (transitive)] > do harm or injury to > cause great harm to
to play hell (with)1750
to make havoc1812
to play Old Harry with1837
to play the bear1854
to play hell and Tommy1859
to play buggery1898
to play havoc1910
1825 W. P. L. Wellesley in Law Jrnl. Rep. (1827) 5 89/1 Out of doors with you in all weathers—play hell and tommy—make as much row as your lungs will permit of—chase cats, dogs, women, young and old, at your full pleasure.
1837 Bentley's Miscell. Aug. 131 Why, hell and Tommy! the maid whom I adore To prove untrue!
1859 T. De Quincey Cæsars (rev. ed.) in Wks. X. 135 Lord Bacon played ‘H— and Tommy’ when casually raised to the supreme seat in the council.
1879 J. McCarthy Donna Quixote xxxii I've played hell-and-tommy already with the lot of them.
1928 ‘A. J. Alan’ Good Evening, Everyone! 131 There was Hell-and-Tommy the next morning, and she had her hand done up in bandages for a week.
1949 Chicago Tribune 11 Sept. i. 14/5 Some American conceptions of any future war against Russia, which..meant ‘atomic bombs for the Americans and hell and tommy for the rest.’
1981 M. Anderson Both Sides of River ii. 77 ‘Hell and Tommy!’ Beattie swore when Willie gave him the instructions.
2001 Analog Sci. Fiction & Fact Apr. 25/2 It sounds like some hell-and-tommy impertinence!
b. hell on (also †upon) wheels: a terrible or terrifying person or thing, esp. one of great speed; also (usually with hyphens) attributive and as complement.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > [noun] > place of evil > quality of being hellish > thing or person
infernal1610
hell brotha1616
hell on (also upon) wheels1843
1843 Quincy (Illinois) Herald 10 Mar. 1/4 Hell-upon-Wheels!..the most appropriate name for that craft [sc. a steam-boat].
1897 ‘P. Warung’ Tales Old Regime 50 To look up an' know heaven's above, an' not the roof of a hell-on-wheels—oh, that'll be grand!
1923 El Palacio (Santa Fe, New Mexico) 15 Mar. 88/1 The railhead towns were ‘hell on wheels’, and the vigilantes were at work hanging men for murder.
1945 W. Lewis Let. 13 Mar. (1963) 381 We learn here that the ‘Hell-on-wheels’ outfit has reached the Elbe. Hooray!
1966 J. Pearl Crucifixion of Pete McCabe (1967) ii. 24 He's hell on wheels on Monday mornings.
1991 B. McCarthy & M. Mallowe Vice Cop 201 My son's hell on wheels. He'll take a piece of steel and bend it round.
c. Originally and chiefly U.S. from hell to breakfast: for a very long way; everywhere; to a very great extent.
ΚΠ
1862 M. Marvin Diary 15 Dec. in B. E. Wiley Billy Yank (1952) 78 Scattered from Hell to Breakfast.
1948 C. Rice Big Midget Murders i. 6 The radio singers and theater managers and cowboy yodelers and city editors, stretched clear from hell to breakfast and back again.
1970 A. Fry How People Die xxiv. 212 I lost my temper and I chewed that poor guy out from hell to breakfast.
2005 Seattle Times (Nexis) 27 May h37 She never saw the point of a seatbelt and the cops said her..body was thrown from hell to breakfast down the narrow highway.
d. hell and (also or) high water: any great difficulty or obstacle; esp. in come hell or high water. Similarly hell nor high water.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > difficulty > [noun] > a difficulty > a great difficulty
Pelion1560
hill1645
hell and (also or) high water1872
1872 Papers Case T. Bowles vs. J. Edwards 33 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (42nd Congr., 2nd Sess.: House of Representatives Misc. Doc. No. 22) I They might fight him..but he was going there in spite of hell and high water.
1882 Burlington (Iowa) Weekly Hawk-eye 4 May 4/4 De devil had brook loose in many parts ob de country, and', keepin' up wid de ole sayin', we've had unrevised hell and high water.
1918 C. E. Mulford Man from Bar-20 xii. 120 Logan found out that he was a real man, a gun-man, an' not scared of h—l an' high water.
1939 A. Keith Land below Wind i. ii. 26 ‘Let empires be built!’—and, come hell or high water, they build 'em.
1939 P. I. Wellman Trampling Herd viii. 93 ‘In spite of hell and high water’..is a legacy of the cattle trail when the cowboys drove their horn-spiked masses of longhorns through high water at every river and continuous hell between.
1963 R. A. Smith Corporations in Crisis 41 He..let neither hell nor high water stand in the way of his attack on them.
1995 I. Rankin Let it Bleed (1996) iv. 34 It was the one appointment he'd known all day he would keep, come hell or high water.
2004 Global Rhythm Jan. 13 He's been through hell and high water putting together his latest project.
e. hell-for-leather: (a) adv. at breakneck speed, very fast, originally with reference to riding on horseback; (b) n. attributive very fast; headlong; wild, zealous. Cf. hell-bent for leather at hell-bent adj. and adv. Phrases.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swiftly [phrase] > at full speed
full speed1382
with topsailc1400
at spursa1500
on (also upon) the (spurs or) spur1525
amain1555
a main pace (also speed)1567
full tilt?a1600
upon full stretch1697
at full tilt1713
at (also on) full speed1749
(at) full split1836
full chisel1837
(at) full pelt1841
full swing1843
ventre à terre1848
full out1886
at full lick1889
hell-for-leather1889
all out1895
eyes out1895
flat out1932
society > travel > transport > riding on horse (or other animal) > [adverb] > riding fast
upon the switch and spur1597
tantivy1648
whip and spur1681
hell-for-leather1889
1881 H. Smith & C. R. Smith Isle of Wight Words 15 Hellfalleero, they be aal quarlun and fightun hellfalleero.]
1889 R. Kipling Story of Gadsbys 73 Here, Gaddy, take the note to Bingle and ride hell-for-leather.
1893 R. Kipling Many Inventions 47 I perceived a gunner-orf'cer in full rig'mentals perusin' down the road, hell-for-leather, wid his mouth open.
1927 Sunday Express 10 July 4 A long line of stage coaches starting on a hell-for-leather race.
1963 Times 21 Feb. 3/2 Australia's plan was to make 90 during the afternoon, if they could, without losing too many wickets and to go hell for leather afterwards.
1971 K. Tynan Diary 3 May (2001) 46 That's the way it was along the West 50s in that never-to-be-forgotten, hell-for-leather heyday of gutbucket and jive.
2000 R. A. Carter Buffalo Bill Cody p. xii The days when Cody and the troopers of the Fifth Cavalry rode hell-for-leather across the prairie in pursuit of hostile Indians.
f. a cold day in hell: the type of an impossibly distant time or an extremely unlikely scenario.
ΚΠ
1906 C. M'Govern Sarjint Larry & Frinds 42 It would be a cold day in hell when de Yankee boys would foind dem.
1968 N. Cruz & J. Buckingham Run Baby Run iii. 32 That's tellin 'im, Israel baby. That little S.O.B. learned his lesson this time. It'll be a cold day in hell before he sticks his nose back around here again.
2004 Time 16 Aug. 66/3 The football coach told Sara's mother that it would be ‘a cold day in hell before a female athlete wrestles in McDowell County.’
g. U.S. hell for breakfast: at breakneck speed; cf. hell-for-leather at Phrases 6e, hell-bent for breakfast at hell-bent adj. and adv. Phrases. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1909 Overland Monthly & Out West Mag. Mar. 235/2 There he were,..stuffin' his stomach hell for breakfast.
1969 Northwest Arkansas Times 28 Nov. 4/2 They want to jump in a big, fast auto, and rush hell for breakfast, hither and yon.
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h. like a bat out of hell: see bat n.1 c.
i. not a hope (also chance) in hell: no possibility, no chance at all; highly unlikely.a snowball's chance in hell: see snowball n. 1b. a cat in hell's chance: see cat n.1 13i.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > belief > uncertainty, doubt, hesitation > impossibility > desire the impossible [phrase] > absence of possibility
you won't catch me1698
not a cat (in hell)'s chance1796
pigs might fly1840
there is (also was, etc.) no way (that)1908
not a hope (also chance) in hell1923
it's (just) not on1935
pigs have wings1936
that'll (also that will) be the day1941
not on your Nelly1959
1923 O. Onions Peace in our Time iii. 37 ‘I rather fancied Lovelightly.’ ‘Lovelightly? Not a hope in Hell!’
1963 J. T. Story Something for Nothing iii. 79 ‘What are the chances of a job here, then?’ Albert asked. ‘For you—not a chance in hell.’ She spoke matter-of-factly.
1987 C. Reid Joyriders i. i. 43/1 You haven't a hope in hell of gettin' compensation.
2001 C. Fowler Devil in Me (2005) 125 Nope. Not a chance in hell that'll happen. Her old man has hated me ever since I caught him in his shed leafing through jazz mags.

Compounds

C1.
a. General attributive.Some Old English (and early Middle English) instances in helle are probably examples of the (strong feminine) genitive case (and its reflex); see etymological note and cf. Lady Day n., Lady chapel n., bridewell n., etc.
hell-babe n.
ΚΠ
1838 C. Dickens Oliver Twist III. xlviii. 253 Open the door of some place where I can lock this screeching Hell-babe.
1894 W. S. Gilbert His Excellency i. 50 The trembling rock from an earthquake's shock..and the hell-babe's scream were a peaceful dream, to the terrible broth of my brewing.
1997 Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) (Nexis) 8 Apr. 2 A bunch of Amazonian women..hurling themselves about in most ungirly pursuits calling each other ‘hell babe.’
hell-bond n. [compare Middle High German hellebant]
ΚΠ
OE Beowulf (2008) 3072 Se secg wære synnum scildig, hergum geheaðerod, hellbendum fæst, wommum gewitnad, se ðone wong strade [read strude].]
1889 W. Campbell Lake Lyrics & Other Poems iii. 150 They loosen! those hell-bonds, from off me, like falling of clod.
1999 S. Heaney tr. Beowulf (2000) 96 Those who robbed it [sc. the treasure] would be guilty of wrong and grimly punished for their transgression, hasped in hell-bonds in heathen shrines.
† hell bound n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 644 Hell bounds high reaching to the horrid Roof. View more context for this quotation
1677 J. Dryden State Innocence iii. i. 22 How did'st thou dare To break Hell bounds?
hell-cauldron n.
ΚΠ
1877 W. Black Green Pastures & Piccadilly III. xxxvii. 297 Presently we found ourselves in a sort of water-witches' paradise. Far below us boiled that hell-cauldron of white smoke [etc.].
1958 G. W. Knight Sovereign Flower iii. 21 That conclusion is a bitter one, throwing up, from this hell-cauldron of bloodshed and hate, a new danger in the satanic figure of Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
† hell cub n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1716 E. Baynard Health 45 Some little Hell Cub.
† hell-darkness n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1546 Supplic. Poor Commons sig. c.vv Thys more then hell darckenesse.
1917 M. A. Ward Missing in S. Raitt & T. Tate Women's Fiction & Great War (1997) i. 38 The last crashing horror of the bomb, in some hell-darkness at the end of all.
hell-deed n.
ΚΠ
1652 E. Benlowes Theophila x. lxxviii. 189 Thou..with Hell-deeds Souls to Hell dost sink.
1931 T. S. Moore Poems 12 And let the sword of an enemy Work this hell-deed of yours.
hell flame n.
ΚΠ
1565 W. Allen tr. St. Augustine Literal Meaning Genesis viii. §5 in Def. & Declar. Catholike Doctr. Purgatory xiii. 169 in W. Fulke Two Treat. against Papistes (1577) i. viii. 117v Howe or of what nature that Hell flame and fyre is to be taken..can scarsely be dissolued and satisfyed.
1817 W. Hazlitt Round Table xix. 171 While the latter are weighing their doubts..the former plunge without remorse into hell-flames.
a1963 S. Plath Ariel (1965) 82 Little poppies, little hell flames.
hell-pack n.
ΚΠ
1891 F. T. Palgrave Visions of Eng. 120 The hell-pack of war is laid close on the land for ruin and flame.
1936 Jrnl. national Assoc. Biblical Instructors 4 49 A sinner, corrupt to the core, hunted by the hell-pack of ungovernable passions.
† hell-pot n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1855 ‘F. Folio’ Bk. for Times: Lucy Boston 347 It's cussed hot down here in this great boiling hell-pot of a place.
1921 E. W. Burlingame Buddhist Legends II. v. i. 100 (note) By way of interpretation of the sounds is introduced the story of the four adulterers and of their torment in the Hell Pot.
1926 J. G. Neihardt Coll. Poems 519 To left and right—a dizzy, flying blear, Reek of a hell-pot boiling in the rear.
† hell-powers n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1599 T. Bilson Effect Certaine Serm. 359 Is the subduing of hell powers, and the treading on all their force..so small a matter?
a1711 T. Ken Preparatives for Death in Wks. (1721) IV. 47 Hell-Pow'rs the Voice shall quiv'ring hear.
1871 H. N. Oxenham Poems xxix. 81 Stretch thy shield hell powers to scare From me, till life be ended!
1927 J. W. Duff Literary Hist. of Rome iv. 439 Artificial scapegoats are employed, upon which, by a curious ritual magic, the anger of the hell-powers is to be diverted.
hell-pride n.
ΚΠ
1944 E. Blunden Shells by Stream 50 Passions armed with horror and hell-pride.
hell-queen n. now rare
ΚΠ
1871 R. C. Noake Bivouac 258 The Hell-queen, then, on sable wing, The caitiff spirit downwards bore, And hissing laughs derisive ring Along the dismal Stygian shore.
a1904 J. G. R. Forlong Faiths of Man (1906) II. 223 She entered successively its seven gates, at each of which a porter despoiled her: at the 1st of her crown by order of the hell queen.
1918 D. H. Lawrence New Poems 63 Out of the hell-queen's cup, the heaven's pale wine.
1971 Mosaic Fall 66/2 (table) Persephone (Hell-queen)..Dis, Pluto (Hell-king).
† hell-rook n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1879 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 82 The hell-rook ranks.
† hell-shout n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1813 W. C. Plunket in Parl. Deb. 1st Ser. 24 814/1 Assailed by the Hell-shout of ‘No Popery’.
† hell-spell n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1606 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iii. 80 Think'st..with thy Hell-Spells thus To crosse our Counsailes.
† hell-spurge n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1849 D. G. Rossetti Let. 18 Oct. (1965) I. 74 Hell-spurge of geomaunt and teraphim.
hell-worm n.
ΚΠ
1624 J. Dyke Good Conscience xv. 272 But drinke Christs blood, and eate Gods word, and they both shall purifie and scoure thy Conscience from all such stuffe, as may breed and feed the Hell-worme of an evill Conscience.
1704 J. Fowle Deus Visibilis ii. 102 Man a poor sinful and miserable creature, an Hell-worm.
1844 E. Bulwer-Lytton tr. F. Schiller Poems & Ballads 42 A hell-worm laidlier than the slain [Ger. einen schlimmern Wurm].
1951 M. D. Anderson Looking for Hist. in Brit. Churches xi. 101 A fearsome serpent which attacks the puny St. Michael, on the lintel, recalls the fight of Odin with the Hell-Worm.
2006 V. K. Singh Sects Tibetan Buddhism iii. 76 On account of his sins he is born as a demon, beast, nāga, insect or hell-worm or a preta.
b. Objective.
† hell-confounding adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1648 J. Beaumont Psyche ii. xc. 20 His Lords allmighty Name..Of hell-confounding Majestie made up.
1748 A. Dutto Hints Glory of Christ 38 Was ever Love like this? Oh Heaven-astonishing, Earth-amazing, and Hell-confounding Love?
1859 E. Samuel Triumph of Holy Spirit 121 It is a hell-confounding, and a devil-terrifying, a devil-amazing, and a devil-consuming reign.
hell-deserving adj.
ΚΠ
1688 W. Scot True Hist. Families 86 Shepherds have no Places, Means or Times, To fall into these Hell-deserving Crimes.
1834 T. H. Chivers Conrad & Eudora i. iii. 22 Thou vile-anointed, hell-deserving wretch!
1999 Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) 13 Nov. a4/6 We have..entered into the field of conflict..to crush out the God-insulting, hell-deserving rebellion.
† hell-devouring adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1599 T. M. Micro-cynicon i. sig. B2 Wherein's containd that Hell deuouring blis.
1689 B. Keach Distressed Sion Relieved 12 Nor do I fear their Hell-devouring Jaws; A Protestant I am, and such I'le dye.
hell-roaring adj.
ΚΠ
1875 Sedalia (Missouri) Daily Democrat 8 June 1/3 We are in the midst of a terrible, an unprecedented,..a hell-roaring fiendish rebellion.
1993 Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) (Nexis) 14 Mar. r31 When whiskey was available, the mountain men tended to get hell-roaring drunk, pass out and sometimes die of exposure.
hell-tearing adj.
ΚΠ
1887 F. Francis Saddle & Mocassin viii. 148 I'm a hell-tearing cyclone! I'm a pitch-fire, singeing, wild-cat terror of Texas!
1935 Arcadia (Calif.) Tribune 9 Aug. 2/2 [The contest] opened Saturday..in a blaze of hell-tearing glory.
c. Instrumental and locative.
† hell-assisted adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
a1711 T. Ken Hymnotheo xiii, in Wks. (1721) III. 378 The Brute..His Hell-assisted Inchantation slights.
1798 W. Sotheby tr. C. M. Wieland Oberon xii. 412 She felt his hell-assisted pow'r.
hell-begotten adj.
ΚΠ
1598 F. Rous Thule i. sig. A 4v Sister she is of hell begotten Night.
1751 T. Smollett Peregrine Pickle I. xi. 82 A hell-begotten brat.
1875 E. A. B. R. Lewis Sappho iv. iv. 119 With hell-begotten breath melt their fine flesh.
1949 R. C. Hutchinson Elephant & Castle i. xiii. 108 I will not have you reorganizing this hell-begotten club without my express permission.
hell-bound adj.
ΚΠ
1776 W. Tans'ur Beauties of Poetry iii. 197 Misers make money all their God, And dread no future Evil... Whilst here, they're but as Hell-bound Slaves.
1842 O. A. Skinner Lett. on Mod. Revivals 42 They were all represented as hell-bound and hell-deserving.
2006 Columbus (Georgia) Ledger-Enquirer (Nexis) 29 Sept. Being a Christian who disagrees with..this administration does not make me a hell-bound heretic.
hell-brewed adj.
ΚΠ
1832 C. Webbe Lyric Leaves 106 To press that luscious draught, hell-brewed, To her sweet lip.
1945 Nevada State Jrnl. 5 Apr. 4/1 Hitler's hell-brewed views.
hell-doomed adj.
ΚΠ
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 697 And reck'n'st thou thy self with Spirits of Heav'n, Hell-doomd . View more context for this quotation
1855 H. M. Johnson Poems 111 Distorted brows, and hell-doomed forms, are there.
1958 E. T. Donaldson Chaucer's Poetry 945 Complexity naturally disappears when everything is represented as either hell-doomed or heaven-directed.
hell-driven adj.
ΚΠ
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Astrophel & Stella xlviii, in Arcadia (1598) 535 Let not mine eyes be hel-driu'n from that light.]
1835 J. Anster tr. J. W. von Goethe Faustus i. 278 The ceaseless babble, Of the tumultuous hell-driven rabble.
1958 Law & Contemp. Probl. 23 51 Our present-day Melville..conceived his idea about a whaling voyage, a hell-driven captain, and a white whale.
hell-engendered adj.
ΚΠ
1763 H. Venn Compl. Duty of Man x. 329 By this means the hell-engendered spark of revenge will quickly die away, and love instead of resentment reign within.
1810 J. Porter Sc. Chiefs V. vi. 159 They should not extinguish the glory of Scotland beneath the murderous devices of hell-engendered envy and cowardice!
1924 New Castle (Pa.) News 1 Mar. 1/7 These indictments will give me an opportunity to reveal..a hell engendered conspiracy against my honor and integrity.
1941 Manch. Guardian 29 Nov. 5/7 What a breath From that unrationed and prolific past Or ever bounteous plenty died the death Beneath the hell-engendered Hitler's blast!
† hell-enkindled adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1765 J. Merrick Psalms cix. 284 His tongue with Hell-enkindled fire Inflam'd.
1835 W. G. Simms Yemassee II. x. 78 Their wild distortions—their hell-enkindled eyes, their barbarous sports and weapons—..mingled up strangely.
† hell-girt adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. viii. 207 Exclusion sad endure from balmy airs And from the light of morn, hell-girt around.
1842 ‘Cato’ Intimidation 27 The youngest born of Tyranny, who there Upspringing fiercely from her hell-girt lair.
† hell-governed adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III i. ii. 67 This good Kings bloud, Which his hell-gouernd arme hath butchered. View more context for this quotation
hell-hatched adj.
ΚΠ
1600 S. Rowlands Letting of Humors Blood 3 For ther's no habite of hell-hatched sinne, That we delight not to be clothed in.
1799 W. H. Ireland Henry II i. i. 23 They did 'gainst me their lawful King, With hell-hatch'd treason, wantonly conspire!
1997 Scotl. on Sunday (Nexis) 6 Apr. It is not the prospect of rounding Amen Corner or the plethora of hell-hatched greens that is causing him so much distress.
hell-haunted adj.
ΚΠ
1691 J. Dryden King Arthur iv. i. 39 Bound to the Fate of this Hell-haunted Grove.
1799 J. C. Walker Hist. Mem. Ital. Trag. iii. 325 Hell-haunted dreams and midnight-wakings dread.
1919 G. White World's Trag. in Poems 132 Beyond the grave, at least I'll find in death Some change more welcome than hell-haunted breath.
1995 Oxf. Art Jrnl. 18 88 All of this produces a curiously bland effect, much less potent than that of the hell-haunted La France Sauvée.
† hell-hired adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1691 J. Dryden King Arthur iii. 21 A Band of Hell-hir'd Slaves.
† hell-instructed adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1659 W. Chamberlayne Pharonnida iii. vi. 216 Waited on by all The hell-instructed torments that could fall Within inventions reach.
1820 J. Lawson Orient Harping ii. 139 Invisible, some hell-instructed cub Pours the arthritic influence to the bone.
1914 G. K. Chesterton Flying Inn vi. 63 The hell-instructed Grocer Has a temple made of tin.
† hell-kindled adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1702 C. Beaumont J. Beaumont's Psyche (new ed.) xvi. xcvii. 250/2 The flames of whose hell-kindled Zeal shall feed Upon and quite devour the Altar.
1846 N. Hawthorne Mosses i. 82 By the blaze of the hell-kindled torches, the wretched man beheld his Faith, and the wife her husband.
hell-mouthed adj.
ΚΠ
1649 Royall Legacies Charles I 6 A Loyall subject hearing a Hel-mouth'd Vilaine say, the King was a Traytour, presently..slew the wretch.
1881 A. C. Swinburne Mary Stuart i. ii. 36 That first lord of four That took in turn this hell-mouthed hag to wife.
1934 D. Thomas Let. 11 May in Sel. Lett. (1966) 126 Today I complain again for a hell-mouthed mist is blowing.
† hell-plumed adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1867 G. Meredith Vittoria I. iii. 35 Those hell-plumed Tyrolese.
hell-sprung adj.
ΚΠ
1647 J. Trapp Mellificium Theol. in Comm. Epist. & Rev. 610 Hell was long since said by one to be paved with the shaven crowns of those hell-sprung locusts.
1818 W. H. Drummond Who are Happy? 35 Hell-sprung horrors his torn soul consume.
1923 C. M. Doughty Mansoul (rev. ed.) iv. 127 Oh, accursed, insane, Hell-sprung, dire, Murder-War!
2013 J. Mason Three Graves Full (2014) 203 Something hell-sprung wasn't the least bit impressed with the reasons why he'd done what he did on that long-ago day.
† hell-spun adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1797 College: a Satire 33 Foul myst'ry drew Around her hell-spun web.
1851 E. Lynn Realities II. 199 He saw that loved, that glorious, being weaved in with such foul threads—such hell-spun threads of sin—that he trembled for her fate.
† hell-taught adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1599 R. Roche Eustathia sig. D4v Those hell-taught hirelings, fit for Sathans feate.
1861 E. Atherstone Israel in Egypt xxi. 358 The mighty angels..To whom it had been given, from power of hell, Or power of man, hell-taught, the maid to guard.
d. Similative.
hell-black adj.
ΚΠ
1596 A. Copley Fig for Fortune 2 This hell-blacke shape.
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xiv. 58 With such a storme of his lou'd head In hell blacke night indur'd.
1758 W. Hawkins Cymbeline in Dramatic & Other Poems iii. 46 Thou would'st betray my love to purposes Of hell-black colour.
1876 J. Todhunter Satan iv. in Laurella 355 Those hell-black phantoms of despair.
2003 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 1 June 29 All the places now rescued from doom by British soldiers..will be plunged straight back into hell-black night.
hell-dark adj.
ΚΠ
1595 J. Davis Worldes Hydrogr. Discription sig. B Syr Frauncis Drake..was inforced to follow his course in the hell darke nights.
1673 J. Faldo in W. Penn Just Rebuke (1674) 21 Oh the Hell-Dark Expressions of the Quakers.
1893 G. Barlow Crucifixion of Man ii. ii. 66 I could keep one corner hell-dark, though the whole world swam in light.
1962 T. Kinsella Downstream 60 Lamplit by the hell-dark laurel hedge.
hell-deep adj.
ΚΠ
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Triumph of Faith in tr. Deuine Weekes & Wks. Misc. 545 Hell-deepe-founded Monuments.
1659 W. Chamberlayne Pharonnida iv. iii. 46 Whose hell-deep plots the dregs of avarice Had so defil'd.
1872 A. C. Swinburne in Fortn. Rev. Sept. 265 Hell-deep or heaven-high.
1971 ‘H. MacDiarmid’ Compl. Poems (1994) II. 1434 Hell-deep and Heavenhigh!
† hell-hued adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
a1732 T. Boston Memoirs (1776) vi. 75 I was most ugly and hell-hued in my own eyes.
1876 R. Browning Pacchiarotto & Other Poems 8 Something heaven-tinged not hell-hued.
† hell-purple adj. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1923 D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers (London ed.) 57 At her white ankles Hell rearing its husband-splendid, serpent heads, Hell-purple, to get at her.
hell-red adj.
ΚΠ
1786 P. M. Freneau Poems 120 A hell-red, wandering light.
1994 R. Hendrickson Happy Trails 246 A red scut of blood like a hell-red rainbow came up from the center, shooting to the sky.
C2.
hell afloat n. slang (now historical) = hell-ship n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > [noun] > vessel on which conditions are bad
hell afloat1826
hell-ship1895
hard case1920
1826 W. N. Glascock Naval Sketch-bk. II. 140 Till at last she was no better nor a reg'lar built hell afloat.
1928 Musical Times 69 623/2 A brutal captain could make his ship a hell afloat, in which sailors had to fight or be flogged to death.
1973 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 117 399 The wretched confinement and unsanitary conditions existing on an overcrowded..‘hell afloat’, provided adequate incentive to attempt escape.
hell box n. Typography a box for holding damaged or broken type.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > composing equipment > [noun] > box for damaged or broken type
hell box1852
hell1870
hell-receptacle1876
1852 Kenosha (Wisconsin) Telegraph 14 May 2/2 It appears that the material of the office, types, cases, sheep's foot, hell box and all, has been stolen by some unprincipled scamp.
1909 ‘M. Twain’ Is Shakespeare Dead? vii. 73 If a man should..say..‘empty..the imposing stone into the hell-box’..I should..know that the writer was only a printer theoretically, not practically.
1983 Business Week 16 May 7 Every rule I ever learned to make the reader keep reading has apparently been tossed in the hell-box.
2006 Winnipeg Sun (Nexis) 1 Apr. 2 His job was to shovel metal into a ‘hell box’, which was this enormous melting pot for the recyclable lead.
hell-brew n. an unpleasant drink, decoction, or mixture; also figurative.
ΚΠ
1899 Nebraska State Jrnl. 24 Dec. 13/5 One especially loathsome hell-brew, known as ‘witch hazel’ is everywhere inevitable.
1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves viii. 69 ‘Have some lemon squash,’ I said... The hell-brew appeared to buck him up, for he resumed in a slightly more pally manner.
1935 Discovery Sept. 264/2 The dart poison..is indeed a hell-brew.
1994 Independent on Sunday 12 June (Review Suppl.) 4/3 Matched with his inflammatory socialism it created a hellbrew of moral attitudes.
hell broth n. a mixture of unpleasant ingredients; a hell-brew; also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > hellishness > [noun] > thing
infernal1610
hell brotha1616
the world > the supernatural > the occult > sorcery, witchcraft, or magic > enchantment or casting spells > [noun] > decoction
hell brotha1616
youth-potion1876
society > morality > moral evil > [noun] > place of evil > quality of being hellish > thing or person
infernal1610
hell brotha1616
hell on (also upon) wheels1843
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iv. i. 19 For a Charme of powrefull trouble, Like a Hell-broth, boyle and bubble. View more context for this quotation
1861 J. R. Lowell Wks. (1890) V. 86 The caldron where the hell-broth of anarchy was brewing.
1915 W. J. Locke Jaffery xxi. 299 I went down into the same hell-broth of sweat and confusion.
2004 Gazette (Montreal) (Nexis) 6 Nov. g6 We had grappa, white wine, beer, vodka, and absinthe—a hell broth of duelling alcohols.
hell buster n. colloquial something which escapes or avoids hell; an exciting or impressive thing.
ΚΠ
1918 Quick March 2 Sept. 1 A wowser-bird of the harp-and-halo variety (i.e., fire-escape, devil-dodger, hell-buster)..happened along.
1991 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 18 Oct. You know, and the actor knows, that he'll have to say ‘Take this cup away from me.’ That's a hell buster. Yet he pulled it off!
hell-cart n. slang (now chiefly historical) a cart or carriage, esp. a hackney carriage.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > vehicles (plying) for hire > [noun] > hackney carriage
hackney coach1618
hell-cart1623
hackney1664
hack1692
fiacre1699
hackney carriage1735
dilly1805
street coach1818
jarvey1819
cab1822
hackney cab1832
gurney1884
cabriolet1907
1623 J. Taylor World runnes on Wheeles sig. A2v You haue borne a heauy share in the Calamitie which these hyred Hackney hell-Carts haue put this Common-wealth vnto.
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot ii. i. 36 The Ladies in the Hell Carts screem'd out for their Hector.
1703 T. Brown et al. Contin. Lett. from Dead to Living (new ed.) 176 They faggotted up my Thumbs together, and tumbl'd me into a Hell-Cart.
1939 Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner 16 July 3 Today this hell-cart would be regarded as a clumsy joke.
2004 Times Educ. Suppl. (Nexis) 27 Feb. 10 Bad liquor was ‘hell-broth’, a hackney carriage a ‘hell-cart’.
helldiver n. U.S. any of various diving waterbirds; esp. a grebe or a diver (loon).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > freshwater birds > [noun] > order Podicipediformes (grebes) > podiceps ruficollis (dabchick)
dive-dapa1000
doppe13..
dumping1393
dippera1425
didapperc1440
dopperc1440
ducker?a1500
dabchickc1520
dive-dapper1559
arsefoot1598
loon1678
penny bird1823
helldiver1839
Tom Pudding1848
1839 W. Irving in Knickerbocker Mag. Oct. 344 He could live under water like that notable species of wild duck, commonly called the Hell-diver.
1859 J. R. Bartlett Dict. Americanisms (ed. 2) Dipper, a small aquatic bird [sc. the horned grebe], common throughout the United States, also called the Water-witch and Hell-diver.
1916 Condor 18 100 The Cormorants—‘Hell Divers’, he called them—‘have caught onto it now,’ he explained; ‘there are more fish in the canals than along shore.’
1940 E. T. Seton Trail of Artist-naturalist 89 I traced them to the pied-bill grebe, or little helldiver.
1962 T. A. Imhof Alabama Birds 59 They [sc. loons] usually prefer to escape danger by diving.., and this characteristic plus their ability to stay under water for a long period of time has earned them the name ‘hell-diver’.
1991 M. Kenyon Kleinberg i. iv. 37 At dusk, walking along the lake side (her dog runs the other way, chasing a helldiver between the decorative cannons), Elisabeth says, I don't want to.
hell-dog n. = hellhound n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > supernatural being > mythical creature or object > [noun] > characters from classical mythology > Cerberus
the hound of hellc888
hell-dog?c1225
Cerberusc1386
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 214 Sweng him..aȝein helle dogge.
a1618 J. Sylvester Panthea Invoc. iii. in Wks. (1880) II. 343/2 Make these pure Hell-Dogs in their Dens to couch.
1795 T. Holcroft Deserted Daughter iv. vi. 59 He's a rascal! A double leagued hell dog!
1814 R. Southey Roderick iii. 31 This hell-dog turn'd aside Toward his home.
1993 Calgary (Alberta) Herald 16 Apr. e10 His name was intended to be Cerberus, after the three-headed Hell-dog of mythology.
hell-door n. [compare Middle High German helletor (German Höllentor)] the gate or entrance of hell; a place that may lead to hell; cf. hell gate n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > entrance to
hell-doorOE
hell gateOE
gates of hellc1000
hell-mouthOE
mouthOE
OE Guthlac A 559 Hwæðre hine gebrohton bolgenmode, wraðe wræcmæcgas, wuldres cempan, halig husulbearn, æt heldore.
a1200 (?c1175) Poema Morale (Trin. Cambr.) 182 in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 225 (MED) Brecð nafre eft crist helle dure [a1225 Lamb. helle gate] for lesen hem of bende.
a1400 in C. Brown Relig. Lyrics 14th Cent. (1924) 53 (MED) Helle dore he brak wiþ his fot.
1681 T. Otway Souldiers Fortune iv. i. 50 Ay, that's Hell-door, and my damnation's in the inside.
1891 F. T. Palgrave Visions of Eng. (rev. ed.) 34 The soul disincarnate Hunts on to hell-door.
1939 PMLA 54 356 Such anachronisms, like that..which represents the speaker as biding in bonds under hell-doors at the birth of Christ.
hell-fiend n. a fiend or devil; a fiendish or fiendlike person.
ΚΠ
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 8366 Her faders lordes & frende Were so slawe wiþ helle-fende.
1655 E. Elys Dia Poemata 1 Hell fiends need walk no more; the World's their own, Converted to an Apparition.
1706 N. Strong England's Perfect School-master (ed. 9) 61 He's like Hell-fiends that sport with evil too.
1839 R. Dawes Nix's Mate II. xii. 42 The will of man..may bring down angels out of heaven, or raise hell-fiends from the fathomless abyss.
1928 Fresno (Calif.) Bee 25 Nov. This is the same hell-fiend who, in August, 1923, murdered Theodore Lockhart in cold blood.
2001 Daily Post (Liverpool) (Nexis) 19 Oct. 24 It is a disappointing hell-fiend in an unoriginal latex mask.
hell god n. [compare Old Saxon helligod, Old High German helligot (Middle High German hellegot, German Höllengott)] a god of the infernal regions, an infernal god.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > inhabitant of > deity in
hell godeOE
hell goddess1858
eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) xxxv. 102 Ða ðohte he [sc. Orfeus] ðæt he wolde gesecan hellegodu [L. infernas adiit domos..umbrarum dominos rogat].
1596 W. Warner Albions Eng. (rev. ed.) vii. xxxvii. 184 Short leaue I tooke, & mounting left the Hell God.
a1620 M. Fotherby tr. D. Phrygius in Atheomastix (1622) i. xii. 124 Through god-begetting Feare, Mans blinded minde did reare, A Hell-god.
2003 Modesto (Calif.) Bee (Nexis) 14 Mar. h5/1 One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires. Not to mention assorted demons, hell gods, werewolves and ex-boyfriends.
hell goddess n. a female hell god.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > inhabitant of > deity in
hell godeOE
hell goddess1858
1858 S. F. Dunlap Vestiges Spirit-hist. Man Index 94/2 Hela, Scandinavian Hell goddess.
2001 Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) 8 May b6/2 Hot on their trail is the queen of mean, a hell goddess named Glory.
hell hag n. a diabolical or vile woman, a witch; cf. hellcat n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > evil person > [noun] > female
viragoc1386
meschyne1490
hellcat1612
hell hag1615
feloness1845
society > morality > moral evil > [noun] > place of evil > quality of being hellish > thing or person > woman
hellcat1612
hell hag1615
demoness1856
1615 J. Swetnam Araignm. Lewde, Idle, Froward, & Vnconstant Women 61 Thou shalt haue a brended slut like a Hell-hagge, with a paire of pappes like a paire of dung-pots.
a1654 J. Richardson Choice Observ. & Explan. Old Test. (1655) 281 A corroding disease it [sc. envy] is; an hel-hag that feeds upon its marrow, bones, and strongest parts.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Destiny of Nations in Sibylline Leaves 294 It rous'd the Hell-Hag.
1927 Daily Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 7 May (Sport section) 2/4 This mealy-mouthed son of a Hell hag.
2002 Luso-Brazilian Rev. 39 141 They cannot immediately nor easily be re-cast as..the runaway madonna or fallen angel, demoness or hell hag.
† hell-hated adj. Obsolete rare hated or detested as hell.
ΚΠ
1608 W. Shakespeare King Lear xxiv. 143 Heere do I tosse those treasons to thy head. With the hell hatedly, oreturnd thy heart.
hell-hole n. [compare Old High German helliloh (Middle High German helleloh)] †the opening into hell (obsolete); (also) a dreary, oppressive, or unpleasant place; cf. sense A. 5b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > as pit or abyss
hell pitOE
pitOE
abysmc1350
hell-holec1400
abyssc1460
bisme1483
pota1500
barathrum?1510
bottomless pit1526
limbo-lake1558
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > dwelling place or abode > a dwelling > other types of dwelling > [noun] > vile or miserable
hell-holec1400
dogholec1450
cabin1594
sty1605
hole1616
hogsty1688
gourbi1738
rathole1770
pigsty1798
hell's kitchen1827
den1836
kennel1837
pigpen1872
rural slum1886
c1400 (?c1380) Cleanness (1920) l. 223 Hurled in-to helle-hole.
1850 Rep. Deb. & Proc. Convent. for Revision Constit. State of Indiana 206/1 Some abominable hell-hole of iniquity.
1882 M. Arnold Irish Ess. 71 Our ‘Hell-holes’, as Cobbett calls our manufacturing towns.
1945 J. B. Priestley Three Men in New Suits ii. 26 Go and drudge in some hell-hole of an office.
2006 P. Rusesabagina & T. Zoellner Ordinary Man xi. 250 The relatives of some of the prisoners live around the fringes of these hellholes to bring them food.
hell house n. an unpleasant house or other place, a hell-hole.
ΚΠ
OE Guthlac A 677 In helle hus, þær eow is ham sceapen, sweart sinnehte, sacu butan ende, grim gæstcwalu.
1584 G. Whetstone Mirour for Magestrates f. 4 v Ye euil disposed knew where to stawle companions euen in the fore named Hell houses,..among the scum of the Cittie.
1796 R. Southey Joan of Arc ix. 314 The embattled towers of that hell-house of France.
1902 Daily Kennebec Jrnl. (Augusta, Maine) 30 Aug. 1/4 ‘You are running a hell house,’ cried she in a loud voice.
2000 C. A. Palmer in D. G. Kelley & R. E. Lewis To make our World anew i. 20 The Crown was concerned about the poor working conditions in these hell houses.
hell-keeper n. (a) a keeper of a gambling den (cf. sense A. 8); (b) a keeper of hell or the underworld.
ΚΠ
1823 in ‘J. Bee’ Slang 174 A certain hell-keeper tied himself up before the magistrates, never to touch a card, or handle a rake again.
1872 Galaxy Apr. 580/2 Certain well-known gamblers work their hells and branch hells..without paying for the privilege as a European hell-keeper is obliged to do.
1977 Assoc. Press (Nexis) 22 June One joke: a group of Burmese, condemned to hell cluster around a cauldron marked ‘socialism’, shunning one labeled ‘capitalism’ to the great puzzlement of the hell-keeper.
hell-kite n. now rare a cruel or loathsome person or thing.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > badness or evil > hellishness > [noun] > person
hellhoundc1340
hell-kitea1616
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > ill-treatment > cruelty > [noun] > person
wolfa900
cruelc1420
Turk1536
scourgemutton1581
savage1609
hell-kitea1616
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) iv. iii. 218 All my pretty ones?.. Oh Hell-Kite! All? What, All my pretty Chickens? View more context for this quotation
1770 T. Lyttelton Poems (1780) 49 Avaunt! thou hell-kite!
1849 G. P. R. James Woodman I. viii. 156 There is no knowing what such hell kites may do.
1907 Washington Post 2 June 6/3 Do you dare intimate, you hell-kite, that I know aught of this?
2010 J. Givens in Plum Rains 207 I can kill anything with it I can see, said the Hell-kite. He lifted the matchlock out of its case.
† hell-matter n. Typography Obsolete rare the damaged or broken type in a hell-box.
ΚΠ
1886 ‘M. Twain’ Old-fashioned Printer in Speeches (1910) 182 I put the good type in his case and the broken ones among the hell-matter.
hell money n. (in China and Chinese contexts) imitation paper money burnt as an offering at a funeral, or at a ritual or festival honouring ancestors, in accordance with the traditional belief that it will be used by the spirit of the deceased in the afterlife.Cf. paper money n. 2, spirit money n. at spirit n. Compounds 1f. [After Chinese (Cantonese) míhng kéuhng ( < míhng (adjective) dark, (noun) underworld + kéuhng money) and (Mandarin) míngbì (already in Middle Chinese; compare míng , corresponding to Cantonese míhng , and bì money: see renminbi n.); compare also Malay wang neraka ( < wang money + neraka hell), probably after Cantonese Chinese.]
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > obsequies > [noun] > funeral offerings
obit1500
infest1567
paper money1704
hell money1940
society > faith > worship > sacrifice or a sacrifice > kinds of sacrifice > [noun] > burnt > types of
wood offering1611
paper money1704
johar1802
yajna1805
torma1895
hell money1940
havan1958
1940 San Antonio (Texas) Sunday Light 30 June (Amer. Weekly section) 2/2 Although the average Chinaman seldom has enough of the currency of the realm in his pocket to keep himself in rice, he always manages to scrape up a few yen for ‘hell money’ when one of his relatives or acquaintances joins his honorable ancestors.
2006 China Econ. Rev. (Nexis) May The wads of hell money being burned at the graves include both fake renminbi and, increasingly, fake US dollars.
† hell-moth n. Obsolete rare a prostitute.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute
meretrixOE
whoreOE
soiled dovea1250
common womanc1330
putec1384
bordel womanc1405
putaina1425
brothelc1450
harlot?a1475
public womanc1510
naughty pack?1529
draba1533
cat1535
strange woman1535
stew1552
causey-paikera1555
putanie?1566
drivelling1570
twigger1573
punka1575
hackney1579
customer1583
commodity1591
streetwalker1591
traffic1591
trug1591
hackster1592
polecat1593
stale1593
mermaid1595
medlar1597
occupant1598
Paphian1598
Winchester goose1598
pagan1600
hell-moth1602
aunt1604
moll1604
prostitution1605
community1606
miss1606
night-worm1606
bat1607
croshabell1607
prostitute1607
pug1607
venturer1607
nag1608
curtal1611
jumbler1611
land-frigate1611
walk-street1611
doll-common1612
turn-up1612
barber's chaira1616
commonera1616
public commonera1616
trader1615
venturea1616
stewpot1616
tweak1617
carry-knave1623
prostibule1623
fling-dusta1625
mar-taila1625
night-shadea1625
waistcoateera1625
night trader1630
coolera1632
meretrician1631
painted ladya1637
treadle1638
buttock1641
night-walker1648
mob?1650
lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651
lady of pleasure1652
trugmullion1654
fallen woman1659
girlc1662
high-flyer1663
fireship1665
quaedama1670
small girl1671
visor-mask1672
vizard-mask1672
bulker1673
marmalade-madam1674
town miss1675
town woman1675
lady of the night1677
mawks1677
fling-stink1679
Whetstone whore1684
man-leech1687
nocturnal1693
hack1699
strum1699
fille de joie1705
market-dame1706
screw1725
girl of (the) town1733
Cytherean1751
street girl1764
monnisher1765
lady of easy virtue1766
woman (also lady) of the town1766
kennel-nymph1771
chicken1782
stargazer1785
loose fish1809
receiver general1811
Cyprian1819
mollya1822
dolly-mop1834
hooker1845
charver1846
tail1846
horse-breaker1861
professional1862
flagger1865
cocodette1867
cocotte1867
queen's woman1871
common prostitute1875
joro1884
geisha1887
horizontal1888
flossy1893
moth1896
girl of the pavement1900
pross1902
prossie1902
pusher1902
split-arse mechanic1903
broad1914
shawl1922
bum1923
quiff1923
hustler1924
lady of the evening1924
prostie1926
working girl1928
prostisciutto1930
maggie1932
brass1934
brass nail1934
mud kicker1934
scupper1935
model1936
poule de luxe1937
pro1937
chromo1941
Tom1941
pan-pan1949
twopenny upright1958
scrubber1959
slack1959
yum-yum girl1960
Suzie Wong1962
mattress1964
jamette1965
ho1966
sex worker1971
pavement princess1976
parlour girl1979
crack whore1990
1602 S. Rowlands Greenes Ghost 4 Is there not one appointed for the apprehending of such hell-moths [sc. harlots and curtizans], that eat a man out of bodie and soule?
hell-mouth n. the mouth or entrance of hell (chiefly without article).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > entrance to
hell-doorOE
hell gateOE
gates of hellc1000
hell-mouthOE
mouthOE
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xxi. 202 [Seo swearte nywelnyss þe ðu gesawe mid þam ormætum þeostrum and fulum] stence, seo is helle muð.
a1225 (?OE) MS Vesp. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 239 (MED) Wat sceol se wrecce don þe..iseȝð..under him helle muð open.
a1450 St. Balaam (Bodl.) 483 in C. Horstmann Altengl. Legenden (1875) 127 (MED) Þe dragon in þe pittes ground, helle mouþ it is.
?1548 tr. J. Calvin Faythfvl Treat. Sacrament sig. D But after that this detestable opinion was inuented, this vnhappie custome proceded out of it as out of an hell mouthe.
a1627 T. Middleton More Dissemblers besides Women iv. iii, in 2 New Playes (1657) 62 Hell-mouth be with thee.
1701 J. Dunton tr. Homer in Merciful Assizes 281 We hate him worse than Hell-Mouth, that utters one thing with his Tongue, and keeps another in his Brest.
1892 R. Kipling Barrack-room Ballads 196 The belly of a tortured star blood-red in Hell-Mouth light.
2001 Art Bull. 83 420/2 In the Winchester Psalter..the Hell mouth is shown as a great scaly sea monster.
hell-pain n. [compare Middle Low German hellepīn, Old High German hellipīna (Middle High German hellepīne, German Höllenpein)] a severe pain or torment, such as may be experienced in hell.
ΚΠ
c1450 Long Charter of Christ, A Text (Bodl. Add. C. 280) (1914) l. 229 All þey schull till helle peyne [c1390 Vernon helle-pyne].
a1616 W. Shakespeare All's Well that ends Well (1623) ii. iii. 230 I would it were hell paines for thy sake. View more context for this quotation
1777 J. Relly Christian Hymns 118 From Bondage and Chains, From Sin and Hell-pains.
1868 C. Lofft Ernest (ed. 2) iii. 44 Hell-pains were stings and spurs.
1949 K. John tr. O. Nansen From Day to Day iii. 253 It's no long step from the most azure expectation to the blackest hell-pains.
hell pit n. [compare Middle Dutch helleput, helleputte (Dutch helleput), Middle Low German hellepütte] the abyss of hell, a bottomless pit in hell.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > as pit or abyss
hell pitOE
pitOE
abysmc1350
hell-holec1400
abyssc1460
bisme1483
pota1500
barathrum?1510
bottomless pit1526
limbo-lake1558
OE Glosses to Bella Parisiacae Urbis of Abbo of St. Germain (Harl. 3271) in W. H. Stevenson Early Scholastic Colloquies 103 Sit machia tibi, quo sit ierarchia, neque sit cloaca tibi : gewin þæt sy halig ealdor ne ne sy helle pyt.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 10215 Forr helle pitt niss næfre full.
c1450 ( G. Chaucer Bk. Duchess 171 This cave was also as derk As helle-pit overal aboute.
1611 G. H. tr. Anti-Coton 74 The Pope..would be drawne to performe that, which hee ought, in condemning by his Buls to hell pit such murtherers and assassins.
1860 H. E. P. Spofford Circumstance in Atlantic Monthly May 559/2 Only the breath like the vapor from some hell-pit still swathed her.
1993 Art Bull. 75 29/2 Another demon uses a hook to drag the psalmist's enemies towards a hell pit.
hell-raiser n. colloquial a person who causes trouble or creates chaos, esp. by wild or outrageous behaviour (cf. to raise hell at Phrases 5g).
ΚΠ
1882 Atchison (Kansas) Globe 23 Mar. A well known Kansas politician and bull and hell raiser.
1914 Emporia (Kansas) Gaz. 13 Jan. He is a..rip-snorting hell-raiser.
1971 Guardian 24 July 10/6 The ex-hell raiser of the Bevanite group [sc. Michael Foot]..seemed to have settled comfortably into the new role of Left-wing Whip.
2002 Jrnl. Wildlife Managem. 66 547/2 A wildlife biologist by vocation, and a hell-raiser by nature.
hell-raising adj. and n. colloquial (a) adj. that causes trouble or chaos, esp. by wild or outrageous behaviour; (b) n. the action of causing trouble or chaos.
ΚΠ
1875 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 30 June The Opposition..is undoubtedly one of the general hell-raising newspapers.
1885 Morning Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) 14 Sept. There is little money to spend even for necessities, much less for the customary hell-raising of new mining settlements.
1966 P. G. Wodehouse Plum Pie ix. 215 She's the hell-raising type, always apt to be starting something.
2007 Washington Post 13 Sept. c4 Billy Joe Shaver is a notoriously feisty honky-tonk hero..with his songs about hell-raising and hard living.
† hell-receptacle n. Typography Obsolete rare = hell box n.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > composing equipment > [noun] > box for damaged or broken type
hell box1852
hell1870
hell-receptacle1876
1876 J. Gould Letter-press Printer 156 Hell receptacle, the receptacle for broken or battered letters; the old metal box; the shoe.
hell sauce n. colloquial a hot spicy sauce.
ΚΠ
1834 L. Ritchie Wanderings by Seine 206 There was also the hell~sauce, composed of pepper.
1998 Evening Standard (Nexis) 22 May 37 Cajun/Creole food is characterised by the liberal use of hot sauces and chillies, from the eponymous Tabasco, to the aptly-named Hell Sauce.
hell's delight n. colloquial pandemonium; great trouble or difficulty; also in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > disorder > confusion or disorder > commotion, disturbance, or disorder > [noun] > (a) noisy
rippit?1507
hubbleshowa1525
burlinga1533
hubble-shubblec1550
burle1563
coil1567
hirdy-girdy1568
riff-raff1582
rut1607
hubbuba1625
clutter1656
sputter1673
splutter1677
rattle1688
rumpus1745
ree-raw1797
bobbery1816
trevally1819
stramash1821
nitty1822
hell's delight1823
pandemonium1827
oration1828
Bob's-a-dying1829
hubbaboo1830
reerie1832
circus1869
tow-row1877
ruaille buaille1885
brouhaha1890
foofaraw1933
bangarang1943
bassa-bassa1956
1823 ‘J. Bee’ Slang 95 Kicking up hell's delights.
1918 W. J. Locke Rough Road xi. 131 Just listen to the hell's delight that's going on over yonder.
1958 L. A. G. Strong Light above Lake 26 Once let anything bad go wrong with them, and you'd hell's delight to mend it.
2004 Calgary (Alberta) Herald (Nexis) 28 Feb. b14 The parking is hell's delight.
hell-ship n. now historical a ship on which living conditions are extremely unpleasant or one with a reputation for cruelty and tyranny among the crew; a floating ‘hell’; cf. hell afloat n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > [noun] > vessel on which conditions are bad
hell afloat1826
hell-ship1895
hard case1920
1884 Delta (Pa.) Herald 25 Jan. She was accursed..by the name of ‘L. Schepp.’.. So unless I bribed my crew with plum duff and stewed chicken every day, I should expect to be known as the captain of the hell-ship.]
1895 Boston Globe 15 Sept. 20/4 American foreign-going ships are..known among seamen of all nations as 'floating slaughter houses', 'hell-ships', 'blood-packets'..etc.
1934 Times Lit. Suppl. 18 Oct. 713/2 The Dovenby Hall, a notorious hell-ship in her day.
2000 A. J. Levine Captivity, Flight & Survival in World War II. 166 Probably the worst hell ship of all was the Oryokku Maru,..carrying 1,619 men jammed so tightly that they could not fall down.
hell's teeth int. slang = hell's bells int.
ΚΠ
1909 G. Burgess Lady Méchante xi. 257 They might jolly well have tyken the bloody syfe and bean done with it! Hell's teeth! but they pinched a good haul.
1957 Winnipeg Free Press 12 Sept. 43/1 Hell's teeth, Ralph, it was a tiddler.
2005 B. Sparks in Apex Sci. Fiction & Horror Digest Fall 14 Hell's teeth! I was too skinny and feeble to defend myself.
hell torment n. severe torment or suffering; an instance of this.
ΚΠ
1598 W. Rankins Seauen Satyres 26 My Phoenix liues againe,Passing hell torment with vnspoken paine.
a1603 A. W. in E. Farr Sel. Poetry Reign Elizabeth (1845) II. 452 Me..He..Brought from hell-torments to the ioyes of heauen.
1671 T. Watson Mischief of Sinne 25 The severity of Hell torment.
1774 T. Warton Hist. Eng. Poetry I. i. 22 A poem is preserved of the same age, on the subjects of death, judgment, and hell torments.
1857 J. G. Holland Bay-path xxi. 252 Hell torment, being directly connected..could never be experienced by Jesus Christ, from the fact that personally he was never guilty.
1981 New Eng. Q. 54 338 The orthodox teaching that the damned would suffer an eternity of hell torments.
hell-wain n. a wagon from hell, esp. as a supernatural manifestation in the night sky.
ΚΠ
1584 R. Scot Discouerie Witchcraft vii. xv. 153 They haue so fraied vs with bull beggers,..the man in the oke, the hell waine, the fierdrake,..and such other bugs, that we are afraid of our owne shadowes.
1906 C. M. Doughty Dawn in Brit. III. x. 115 Snake-haired furies, in hell-wain, pursuing His soul, with scourges.
1972 M. J. Petry Herne the Hunter vi. 71 The Woden's wagon of the Dutch, the hellwain of northern England, north Germany and Holland.
† hell ware n. [ < hell n. + -ware suffix] Obsolete the inhabitants of hell; cf. heavenware n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [noun] > inhabitant of > collect
hell wareOE
hell1588
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) xxii. 207 Se ælmihtiga fæder..hine swa mærsode, þæt ealle gesceafta, heofonwara, eorðwara, helwara, onbugað gebigedum cneowe ðam hælendum criste.
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 53 Biforen alle heueneware and herðeware, and ec helleware.
a1350 (a1250) Harrowing of Hell (Harl.) (1907) 217 (MED) Þou hete me to helle ware And þat I sulde sugen þare Þat art þou crist.
hell week n. U.S. (chiefly College slang) a period (typically a week) of physical and psychological harassment, constituting an initiation ritual for a college fraternity or sorority; a similar period of initiation in other contexts; (also in extended use) an unpleasant time or experience.
ΚΠ
1920 Ada (Okla.) Evening News 24 July 2/1 So here's to the dear old Phis. And here's to hell-week too.
1982 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 6 May b6 For all candidates the major test during the first phase of training is ‘hell week’.
1993 Esquire June 85/1 Departmental budget briefings are a yearly Washington rite, a Hell Week for beat reporters.
2004 Teen Vogue Apr. 157/2 The last week of pledging—the week before initiation—is usually known as ‘Hell Week’, in which the humiliation, subordination, and sleeplessness of the previous weeks are magnified.

Derivatives

ˈhell-like adj.
ΚΠ
c1550 T. Becon Flour of Godly Praiers f. xii Almost fallen thorow the multytude of my synnes, into the hellike pit of desperacyon.
a1680 J. Harrington Horae Consecratae (1682) 411 The renew'd Fire of Zeal, (this Hell-like) Fire of Sin.
1814 S. E. Brydges Occas. Poems 3 Raise thy young hopes to agony of joy, Then hell-like laugh, as their cold blights destroy!
1923 Amer. Jrnl. Philos. 44 127 The king's minister judges the case, and both are thrown into a hell-like prison.
2002 Time 1 July 47/3 A seven-year hell-like Tribulation would begin, survived by only a small human remnant.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

hellv.1

Brit. /hɛl/, U.S. /hɛl/
Forms: Middle English hel, Middle English hell, Middle English helle, 1800s hyle (Irish English (Wexford)); English regional 1700s– hell, 1700s– hill (south-western), 1800s– hel (Cumberland), 1800s– helle (northern).
Origin: A borrowing from early Scandinavian.
Etymology: < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic hella , Old Swedish hälla (Swedish hälla ), all in sense ‘to pour’) < the same Germanic base as hield v. Compare earlier hield v. 7.
Now English regional (chiefly northern).
transitive and intransitive. To pour (in various senses).
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > liquid > liquid flow > action or process of flowing > flow [verb (intransitive)] > copiously
wallc893
bolkena1300
railc1390
gush?a1400
hella1400
walterc1400
yraylle1426
downpoura1522
pour1538
bolk1541
flush1548
sluice1593
teem1753
flux1823
swill1884
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > going or coming out > letting or sending out > let or send out [verb (transitive)] > emit > copiously
yeteOE
effuse1398
hella1400
pourc1451
pump1580
shower1611
beteem?1630
repump1753
pail1807
volume1815
a1400 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Hatton 12) in Eng. Writings (1931) Prol. 3 Þai drope swetnes in mannys saule and hellis delite in þaire thoghtis.
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 3813 As all þe watir of þe werd ware in þaire wambs hellid.
?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 62v To helle, infundere [1483 BL Add. 89074 Helle jn, jnfundere]... To helle owte: ffundere, effundere.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) lxviii. §29. 243 Hell on þaim þi wreth.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) xxi. §13. 79 As watere .i. am helt.
a1743 J. Relph Misc. of Poems (1747) 2 Down hell'd the bluid.
1777–8 R. Wight Horæ Subsecivæ (MS Bodl. Eng. lang. d.66) Gloss. 213 To hill down... To pour down as it were by Pailfulls, spoken of Rain pouring down like Water Spouts.
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) Helle, to pour out. [So in Northumberland, Lonsdale, Swaledale glossaries.]
1867 W. F. Rock Jim an' Nell 7 Lewy, hell Bet a cup o' zider.
1875 ‘S. Gilpin’ Pop. Poetry Cumberland & Lake Country 200 They drank in piggins, peynts, or quarts,..An' some they helt it down sae fast, They suin could hardly stan'.
1893 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Hell, helle, to pour out in a rapid manner.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

hellv.2

Brit. /hɛl/, U.S. /hɛl/
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: hell n.
Etymology: < hell n.
1. transitive. (a) To place in or as in hell. (b) To make into a hell. (c) To cause (a person, one's mind, etc.) great annoyance or anguish; to give (a person) hell.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > hell > [verb (transitive)] > place in hell
inhell1607
hell1614
Tartarize1675
Tartarus1856
the mind > emotion > suffering > mental anguish or torment > cause of mental anguish or torment > cause anguish to or torment [verb (transitive)]
quelmeOE
eatc1000
martyrOE
fretc1175
woundc1175
to-fret?c1225
gnawc1230
to-traya1250
torment1297
renda1333
anguish1340
grindc1350
wringc1374
debreakc1384
ofpinec1390
rivea1400
urn1488
reboil1528
whip1530
cruciate1532
pinch1548
spur-galla1555
agonize1570
rack1576
cut1582
excruciate1590
scorchc1595
discruciate1596
butcher1597
split1597
torture1598
lacerate1600
harrow1603
hell1614
to eat upa1616
arrow1628
martyrize1652
percruciate1656
tear1666
crucify1702
flay1782
wrench1798
kill1800
to cut up1843
1614 T. Adams Diuells Banket iv. 171 The dead in sinne are hell'd here, by the tormenting anguish of an vnappeaseable conscience.
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xlviii. sig. Q7v Every good line addes sinew to the vertuous minde: and withall, hells that vice, which would be springing in it.
1842 G. M. Barmby in Promethean June 65/3 He would have marred his Eden, he would have helled his paradise.
1903 P. F. Rowland New Nation 34 The raging bush~fires that hell the Australian plains.
1924 R. Kipling Debits & Credits (1926) 242 That's not his real trouble... I wonder what's really helling him.
2003 in Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press (Nexis) (2006) 18 June a19 Their evil corruption helling upon my soul.
2. intransitive. To hurry, to rush (see hell-for-leather at hell n. and int. Phrases 6e). to hell around: to mess around; to behave in a reckless or dissipated manner; to raise hell.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > rate of motion > swiftness > swift movement in specific manner > move swiftly in specific manner [verb (intransitive)] > move swiftly and violently > rush around
scour1297
startlec1300
reelc1400
rammisha1540
gad1552
ramp1599
fling1620
to run rounda1623
rampage1791
to run around1822
to rip and tear1846
hella1864
running around like a chicken with its head cut off (also like a chicken with no head)1887
to haul ass1918
tear-arse1942
a1864 J. Clare Early Poems (1989) II. 504 Theyd won the game—& then pell melling As safes a button sent thee helling.
1897 O. Wister Lin McLean (1898) 60 A man was liable to go sporting and helling around till he waked up.
1928 J. P. McEvoy Show Girl 166 You were in the show business and throwing your best years away helling around.
1929 W. Faulkner Sound & Fury 243 She had to come helling in there at twelve, worrying me about that letter.
1959 ‘E. Fenwick’ Long Way Down x. 83 Had his supper..just like he always did. I missed mine, helling up here this way.
1960 F. Sullivan Let. 9 Jan. in Groucho Lett. (1967) 147 That oppressed and downtrodden share-cropper, Massa Nunnally Johnson, is hellin' around with Ava Gardner, making a picture.
1991 J. Michael Sleeping Beauty xiii. 292 There I was, still helling around like a soldier on leave.
2003 Scunthorpe Evening Tel. (Nexis) 9 Apr. 3 They are 'helling' through and they don't want to take their foot off the throttle.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

† hellv.3

Origin: A borrowing from German. Etymon: German hellen.
Etymology: < German hellen to make bright (18th cent.; now rare and only used reflexively or in combinations; compare Middle High German hellen to make bright (rare; probably not continuous with the later word)) < hell bright, shining, clear (Middle High German hell bright, shining, clear, loud, resounding, Old High German -hel , designating sound (in e.g. unhelle dissonant)), cognate with Middle Dutch hel bright, clear, loud, resounding (Dutch hel bright, clear) < the Germanic base of Old English hiellan , Middle Dutch hellen , Old Saxon hellan , Old High German hellan (Middle High German hellen ), all in the sense ‘to make a noise, sound, resound’, Old Icelandic hjala to talk < the same Indo-European base as ancient Greek καλεῖν to call (see calends n.).
Obsolete. rare.
transitive. To add lustre to, to burnish (gold or silver). With of.
ΚΠ
1738 G. Smith tr. Laboratory i. 24 To Hell of Gold, or gilded Work. Take two ounces of Tartar, two ounces of Sulphur..and it will give it a fine Lustre.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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