hell

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

• enPR: hĕl, IPA^(key): /hɛl/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɛl

From Middle English helle, from Old English hel, hell, helle (“nether world, abode of the dead, hell”), from Proto-Germanic *haljō (“nether world, concealed place”), 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 various religions, the place where some or all spirits are believed to go after death

   Some religious people believe that all the followers of the other religions go to hell.

2. (in many religions, uncountable) The place where sinners suffer after death

   May you rot in hell!

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

     Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

   • 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

• (in many religions, uncountable): heaven

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

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

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

2. (countable) A place for gambling.
   • W. Black

     a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless

   • 1907, Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent

     […] 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 his shreds, or a printer his broken type.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Hudibras to this entry?)

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

hell

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

   Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.

   • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant Of Venice, Act II Scene 7

     O hell! what have we here?

     A carrion Death, within whose empty eye

     There is a written scroll! [...]

2. (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) 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, r]est assured, there will be no more Middle Eastern crisis – hell, there will be no more Middle East!

• damn
• heck

hell (not comparable)

1. (postpositional) Alternative form of the hell or like hell.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

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

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, burnish (silver or gold).
   • G. Smith (1799)

     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 Old Norse hella (“to pour”). Cognate with Icelandic hella (“to pour”), Norwegian helle (“to pour”), Swedish hälla (“to pour”). See also hield.

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

1. (rare) To pour.
   • Harvest (1821)

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

• A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles

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

hell m

1. skewer
2. spear
3. icicle

hell

1. Aspirate mutation of kell.

Of Finnic origin. Cognate to Finnish hellä and Votic ellä.

hell (genitive hella, partitive hella)

1. tender, gentle

Cognate with Dutch hel, from Proto-Germanic *haljō, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide, conceal”).

• IPA^(key): /hɛl/

• audio (Germany)

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• audio (Austria)

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hell (comparative heller, superlative am hellsten)

1. clear, bright, light
   • 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.

• dunkel

• hellhörig
• hellsichtig

• hell in Duden online

From Old High German hel. 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

From Old Norse heill.

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

1. luck

See the etymology of the main entry.

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.

From Proto-Germanic *haljō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide, conceal”). Cognate with Old Frisian helle, hille, Old Saxon hel, hellia, Old Dutch hella, Old High German hella, hellia, Old Norse hel, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰 (halja).

Compare hell, German for "light".

• IPA^(key): /ˈhell/

hell f

1. hell

• hellewīte

• Middle English: helle
  • English: hell
  • Scots: hel