fire and brimstone
4
9.0
- noun
- /ˈfaɪər ənd ˈbrɪmstoʊn/
:
fuego y azufre
- You'd think he was the priest himself, the way he's yelling about fire and brimstone and the great plague upon the city.
- fire and brimstone preacher
- fire and brimstone sermon
Examples
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In the novel, the character reminisced about the fire and brimstone sermons he heard as a child, which instilled fear and reverence.
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The Bible says it will end with fire and brimstone.
Blog text (14) -
Now if they want fire and brimstone, then they gonna get it!
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Now, how do you control people who no longer believe... in your stories of fire and brimstone?
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God will deal with them and sentence them to an eternity of fire and brimstone!
Blog text (5) -
And a pretty typical fire-and-brimstone preacher.
Blog text (19) -
He was a fire and brimstone Baptist minister.
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We don't preach fire and brimstone.
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I'm talking about raining down fire and brimstone, punishing the wicked.
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And in Sodom and Gomorrah, he devastated with fire and brimstone.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
Knowing 'fire' and 'brimstone' (sulfur) a B1 learner can likely infer fiery, hellish punishment imagery, so there is a clear metaphorical link to divine punishment. However, the conventionalized rhetorical sense — a particular style of preaching that issues threats/warnings of hell — is partly idiomatic and the archaic word 'brimstone' reduces immediate transparency, so the meaning is not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
The phrase fire and brimstone comes from the Bible and from old preachers who spoke of fire and brimstone as burning sulfur in 'hell' to frighten sinners. That's why fire and brimstone now describes angry religious warnings or threats of 'punishment'.