hellnoun
uk/hel/us/hel/B2 [ S or U ] an extremely unpleasant or difficult place, situation, or experience:
Work is sheer hell at the moment.
The last few months have been absolute hell.
See also
hellhole
infernal
B2 [ S ] also Hell in some religions, the place where some people are believed to go after death to be punished for ever for the bad things they have done during their lives:
I'll go to Hell for this.
make sb's life hell also make life hell for sb informal
to cause a lot of problems for someone and make them very unhappy:
I worked for her for two years and she made my life hell.
More examples
- Living with her has been pure hell recently.
- I'd see her in hell before I'd agree to an arrangement like that.
- It was a living hell for the soldiers out there on the front line.
- " Didn't you enjoy teaching, then?" "No, it was sheer hell - I'd never be a teacher."
- She had to suffer the hell of giving birth to her dead baby.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Relgious concepts: Hell
- damn
- damnation
- damned
- fire
- fire and brimstone idiom
- Hades
- hellfire
- infernal
- underworld
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Religious concepts: life after death
Treating people or animals badly
Idiom(s)
all hell breaks loose
come hell or high water
for the hell of it
from hell
give sb hell
go to hell
go to hell and back
hell for leather
hell on earth
be hell on wheels
there'll be hell to pay
to hell with sb/sth
when hell freezes over
hellexclamation, noun [ U ]
uk/hel/us/hel/B2 used to express anger or to add emphasis:
Oh hell, I've forgotten my key!
What the hell was that noise?
We don't have a hope in hell (= we have no hope) of meeting such a tight deadline.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Expressions of anger
- bally
- biscuit
- blast
- blasted
- bleeding
- bloody
- dare
- dash
- fie
- flip
- flipping
- for crying out loud! idiom
- freaking
- pipe
- precious
- sodding
- that (really) takes the biscuit idiom
- that does it! idiom
- what a business! idiom
- what do you mean? idiom
See more results »
Idiom(s)
annoy, frighten, scare, etc. the hell out of sb
(as) ... as hell
be hell-bent on sth
beat the hell out of sb
get the hell out of somewhere
the hell sb is/does, etc.
hell of a
like hell
to hell
what the hell