Hell

• POS: Interjection, Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

Hell, n. [AS. hell; akin to D. hel, OHG. hella, G. hölle, Icel. hal, Sw. helfvete, Dan. helvede, Goth. halja, and to AS. helan to conceal. . Cf. Hele, v. t., Conceal, Cell, Helmet, Hole, Occult.].

•  The place of the dead, or of souls after death; the grave; -- called in Hebrew sheol, and by the Greeks hades.  [1913 Webster]

  "He descended into hell."  [1913 Webster]

  "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."  [1913 Webster]
•  The place or state of punishment for the wicked after death; the abode of evil spirits. Hence, any mental torment; anguish.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

  "It is a knell
  That summons thee to heaven or to hell."  [1913 Webster]
•  A place where outcast persons or things are gathered  [1913 Webster]

Gates of hell. (Script.) See Gate, n., 4.

Hell, v. t. 

 To overwhelm.  Spenser.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Hell, n.
1 a place regarded in some religions as the abode of the dead, or of condemned sinners and devils.
2 a place or state of misery or wickedness.
3 colloq. used as an exclamation of surprise or annoyance (who the hell are you?; a hell of a mess).
4 US colloq. fun; high spirits.

Idiom

beat (or knock etc.) the hell out of colloq. beat etc. without restraint. come hell or high water no matter what the difficulties. for the hell of it colloq. for fun; on impulse. get (or catch) hell colloq. be severely scolded or punished. give a person hell colloq. scold or punish or make things difficult for a person. hell-bent (foll. by on) recklessly determined. hell-cat a spiteful violent woman. hell-fire the fire or fires regarded as existing in hell. hell for leather at full speed. hell-hole an oppressive or unbearable place. hell-hound a fiend. hell's angel a member of a gang of male motor-cycle enthusiasts notorious for outrageous and violent behaviour. like hell colloq.
1 not at all.
2 recklessly, exceedingly. not a hope in hell colloq. no chance at all. play hell (or merry hell) with colloq. be upsetting or disruptive to. what the hell colloq. it is of no importance.

Derivative

hell-like adj. hellward adv. & adj.

Etymology

OE hel, hell f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Hell

Abaddon, Acheron, Babel, Dis, Erebus, Gehenna, Hades, Pandemonium, Sheol, Styx, Tartarus, Tophet, Torrid Zone, abyss, affliction, agony, anguish, bedlam, betting house, betting parlor, blazes, bottomless pit, bowels, cacophony, cage, casino, castigation, censure, chaos, clawing, confusion of tongues, coop, crib, criticism, cruciation, crucifixion, deep space, deeps, depths, enclosure, equator, flat, furnace, gambling den, gambling hall, gambling hell, gambling house, gaming house, gaping depths, hades, hell upon earth, holocaust, horror, infernal pit, infernal regions, inferno, joint, laceration, lancination, limbo, lower world, martyrdom, misery, nether world, netherworld, nightmare, noise, ordeal, outer space, oven, pain, pandemonium, passion, pen, penfold, perdition, persecution, pinfold, pit, place of confinement, poolroom, pound, purgatory, rack, racket, reprimand, scolding, sporting house, static, steam bath, subtropics, suffering, torment, torture, trial, tropics, underworld, unfathomed deeps, unknown depths, upbraiding, wassail

ROGET THESAURUS

Hell

Chance

N chance, lot, fate, luck, good luck, mascot, speculation, venture, stake, game of chance, mere shot, random shot, blind bargain, leap in the dark, pig in a poke, fluke, potluck, faro bank, flyer, limit, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, drawing lots, sortilegy, sortition, sortes, sortes Virgilianae, rouge et noir, hazard, ante, chuck-a-luck, crack-loo, craps, faro, roulette, pitch and toss, chuck, farthing, cup tossing, heads or tails cross and pile, poker-dice, wager, bet, betting, gambling, the turf, gaming house, gambling house, betting house, bucket shop, gambling joint, totalizator, totalizer, hell, betting ring, dice, dice box, gambler, gamester, man of the turf, adventurer, dicer, fortuitous, unintentional, unintended, accidental, not meant, undesigned, purposed, unpremeditated, unforeseen, uncontemplated, never thought of, random, indiscriminate, promiscuous, undirected, aimless, driftless, designless, purposeless, causeless, without purpose, possible, unforeseeable, unpredictable, chancy, risky, speculative, dicey, randomly, by chance, fortuitously, unpredictably, unforeseeably, casually, unintentionally, unwittingly, en passant, by the way, incidentally, as it may happen, at random, at a venture, at haphazard, acierta errando, dextro tempore, fearful concatenation of circumstances, fortuitous combination of circumstances, le jeu est le fils d'avarice et le pere du desespo, the happy combination of fortuitous circumstances, the fortuitous or casual concourse of atoms, God does not play dice with the universe, chance, indetermination, accident, fortune, hazard, hap, haphazard, chance medley, random, luck, raccroc, casualty, contingence, adventure, hit, fate, equal chance, lottery, tombola, toss up, turn of the table, turn of the cards, hazard of the die, chapter of accidents, fickle finger of fate, cast of the dice, throw of the dice, heads or tails, flip of a coin, wheel of Fortune, sortes, sortes Virgilianae, probability, possibility, odds, long odds, run of luck, accidentalness, main chance, odds on, favorable odds, contingency, dependence (uncertainty), situation (circumstance), statistics, theory of Probabilities, theory of Chances, bookmaking, assurance, speculation, gaming, casual, fortuitous, accidental, adventitious, causeless, incidental, contingent, uncaused, undetermined, indeterminate, random, statistical, possible, unintentional, by chance, accidentally, by accident, casually, perchance, for aught one knows, as good would have it, as bad would have it, as luck would have it, as ill-luck would have it, as chance would have it, as it may be, as it may chance, as it may turn up, as it may happen, as the case may be, grasps the skirts of happy chance, the accident of an accident, There but for the grace of God go I.

Hell

N hell, bottomless pit, place of torment, habitation of fallen angels, Pandemonium, Abaddon, Domdaniel, jahannan, sheol, hell fire, everlasting fire, everlasting torment, eternal damnation, lake of fire and brimstone, fire that is never quenched, worm that never dies, purgatory, limbo, gehenna, abyss, Tartarus, Hades, Avernus, Styx, Stygian creek, pit of Acheron, Cocytus, infernal regions, inferno, shades below, realms of Pluto, Pluto, Rhadamanthus, Erebus, Tophet, hellish, infernal, stygian, dies irae dies illa, the hue of dungeons and the scowl of night.

Depth

N depth, deepness, profundity, depression, hollow, pit, shaft, well, crater, gulf, bowels of the earth, botttomless pit, hell, soundings, depth of water, water, draught, submersion, plummet, sound, probe, sounding rod, sounding line, lead, bathymetry, sonar, side-looking sonar, bathometer, deep, deep seated, profound, sunk, buried, submerged, subaqueous, submarine, subterranean, subterraneous, subterrene, underground, bottomless, soundless, fathomless, unfathomed, unfathomable, abysmal, deep as a well, bathycolpian, benthal, benthopelagic, downreaching, yawning, knee deep, ankle deep, beyond one's depth, out of one's depth, over head and ears, mark twine, mark twain.