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Glite Dictionary
all hell will break loose

all hell will break loose

1 7.9
A sudden time when many people lose control and chaos starts
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : se desatará el caos
  • "He had trouble with Regensburg, and then trouble in Warsaw, and if he does this, all hell will break loose."

Examples

  • Then all hell breaks loose.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • And all hell breaks loose...

    Fiction book (1998)

  • If that happens, watch all hell break loose in the GOP.

    Blog text (18)

  • All hell breaks loose in the next room.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • It is then that all hell breaks loose.

    Blog text (14)

  • If she was found innocent, all hell would break loose because there has been so much about this and there have been so many people dragged into this.

  • If the teacher announces a pop quiz, all hell will break loose in the classroom.

  • When the band started playing their hit song, all hell broke loose as the crowd surged forward.

  • If the principal implements a new dress code, all hell will break loose among the students.

Synonyms

all hell broke loose
vsall hell will break loose
  • Informal
16 8.1

A sudden time of chaos and confusion that spreads quickly

warns that such chaos will occur in the future
all bedlam broke loose
vsall hell will break loose
  • Informal
9.9

Sudden noisy chaos starts

predicts such disorder will happen rather than reporting it

Antonyms

peace
∞ 1.0

A calm, friendly relationship between people or groups without argument

calmness
9 2.7

A state without strong feelings or worry in your mind

How Chaotic

chaos
438 3.1
all hell will break loose
  • Informal
1 7.9
tense
310 3.6
calm
52 1.0

Surface Forms

all hell will break loose main

Morphology

all + hell + will + break + loose

The verb phrase 'break loose' literally suggests escaping restraint or becoming uncontrolled and 'hell' conveys extreme disorder, so a learner who knows the parts can get a rough sense of an eruption of serious trouble. However, 'all hell' as an intensifying idiomatic unit and the fixed collocation make the exact force and conventional usage unpredictable without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

The idiom all hell will break loose may come from old stories that imagine the gates of hell opening and demons rushing out. That strong picture of something terrible suddenly escaping is why the phrase now means 'a lot of trouble' or 'complete chaos'.