hell

• (Christianity): Hell
• hel (17th century)
• helle

• enPR: hĕl, IPA^(key): /hɛl/

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɛl

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

hell

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

   Antonym: heaven

   May you rot in hell!

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 23:14:

     Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

   • 1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 39:

     Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.

   • 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

     Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke.

• See Thesaurus:afterlife

hell (countable and uncountable, plural hells)

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

   My new boss is making my job a hell.

   I went through hell to get home today.

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

   • 1879, General William T. Sherman, commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy

     There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.

   • 1986, “Disposable Heroes”, in Metallica (music), Master of Puppets:

     Why, am I dying? / Kill, have no fear / Lie, live off lying / Hell, hell is here

   • 2024 May 8, Damian Carrington, “‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair. World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, in The Guardian, UK:

     So how do the scientists cope with their work being ignored for decades, and living in a world their findings indicate is on a “highway to hell”?.

2. (countable) A place for gambling.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Here’s five-and-twenty for you. Don’t be losing it at the hells now.

   • 1877, William Black, Green Pastures and Piccadilly:

     a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless

   • 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, →OCLC; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, →OCLC, page 15:

     But there was also about him an indescribable air which no mechanic could have acquired in the practice of his handicraft however dishonestly exercised: [...] the air of moral nihilism common to keepers of gambling hells and disorderly houses; [...]

3. (figuratively) An extremely hot place.

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

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

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

   What the hell is wrong with you?!

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

5. (obsolete) A place into which a tailor throws shreds, or a printer discards broken type.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     This sturdy Squire, he had, as well
     As the bold Trojan Knight, seen Hell.

6. In certain games of chase, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.
7. (colloquial, with on) Something extremely painful or harmful (to)

   That steep staircase is hell on my knees.

hell

1. (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Used to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.

   Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:

     O hell! what have we here?
     A carrion Death, within whose empty eye
     There is a written scroll! […]

2. (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar, non-productive) Used to emphasize.

   Hell, yeah!

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

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

• hell's bells
• hell no
• hells
• hell yes, hell yeah, hells yeah
• oh hell

• damn
• heck

hell (not comparable)

1. (postpositional) Alternative form of the hell or like hell.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, →OCLC, page 35:

     ‘I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’
     ‘Thank you, sir.’
     Did he hell. They never bloody did.

2. (Australia, impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Very; used to emphasize strongly.

   Synonym: hella

   That was hell good!

   They're hell sexy.

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

1. To make hellish; to place (someone) in hell; to make (a place) into a hell. [from 17th c.]
2. To hurry, rush. [from 19th c.]
   • 1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury:

     I had already lost thirteen points, all because she had to come helling in there at twelve, worrying me about that letter.

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

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

1. (rare, metal-working) To add luster to; to burnish (silver or gold).
   • 1770, Godfrey Smith, The Laboratory: Or, School of Arts:

     To hell gold or gilt workː take two ounces of tartar, two ounces of sulfur.. and it will give it a fine luster.

• A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles

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

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

1. (rare) To pour.
   • 18th century, unknown author, The Harvest or Bashful Shepherd

     Gosh, the sickle went into me handː Down hell'd the bluid.

• A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles

From Proto-Albanian *skōla, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kol- (“stake”); compare Lithuanian kuõlas, Polish kół, Ancient Greek σκύλος (skúlos).

hell m (plural heje, definite helli, definite plural hejet)

1. skewer
2. spear
3. icicle
4. (adverb) standing straight without moving

hell

1. Aspirate mutation of kell.

From Proto-Finnic *hellä. Cognate to Finnish hellä and Votic elle.

hell (genitive hella, partitive hella, comparative hellem, superlative kõige hellem)

1. tender, gentle

From Middle High German hel (“resounding, loud, shining, bright”), from Old High German hel (“resounding”), from Proto-Germanic *halliz (“resounding”), from Proto-Germanic *hellaną (“to resound, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, make noise”). Cognate with Dutch hel.

• IPA^(key): /hɛl/

• audio (Germany)

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• audio (Austria)

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hell (strong nominative masculine singular heller, comparative heller, superlative am hellsten)

1. clear, bright, light

   Antonym: dunkel

   • 1918, Elisabeth von Heyking, Die Orgelpfeifen, in: Zwei Erzählungen, Phillipp Reclam jun. Verlag, page 9:

     So dunkel und schauerlich die Gruft aussah, wenn man durch die blinden, bestaubten Scheibchen der kleinen Fenster hineinblickte, so hell und freundlich war oben die Kirche.

     Just as dark and eerie the crypt looked like, if one looked in it through the cloudy, dusted little panes of the small windows, as bright and friendly was the church above.

• hellhörig
• hellsichtig

• sternenhell
• taghell

• “hell” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “hell” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “hell” in Duden online

From Old High German hel, related to the verb hellan, from Proto-Germanic *hellaną (“to resound”). Cognate with German helle, Dutch hel.

• IPA^(key): /hæl/
• Rhymes: -æl
• Homophone: Häll

hell (masculine hellen, neuter hellt, comparative méi hell, superlative am hellsten)

1. clear, bright
2. light, pale

hell

1. Alternative form of helle

hell

1. Alternative form of helle

From Old Norse heill.

hell n (definite singular hellet, indefinite plural hell, definite plural hella or hellene)

1. luck

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

hell

1. imperative of helle

• “hell” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Ultimately from Old Norse heill.

hell n (definite singular hellet, indefinite plural hell, definite plural hella)

1. luck

• “hell” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• hel

From Proto-West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide, conceal”).

Compare German hell (“light”).

• IPA^(key): /xell/, [heɫ]

hell f

1. hell

• hellcund
• helldor (“gate of hell”)
• hellefȳr (“hellfire”)
• hellrūn (“sorceress”)
• hellewīte
• hellehund (“hellhound”)

• Middle English: helle, hel, hell; hælle
  • English: hell, Hell
  • Scots: hell, Hell

From Old Swedish heel, from Old Norse heill (“good omen, luck”, literally “whole, healthy”). Doublet of hel.

hell

1. (archaic) hail (exclamation or greeting)

• hell seger (“Sieg Heil”)

• hell in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• hell in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• hell in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• hell in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)