hell
197
6.1
- noun
- /hɛl/
- Informal
- Mugs stuffed, my brothers leap up, light out for town, hell-bent for trouble.
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Watch on YouTubeAnd so children starts raising some hell, right?
- And so children starts raising some hell, right?
Examples
-
A prosecutor arrested the men and seized the cargo, but then all hell broke loose.
Academic text (2015) -
The children were having so much fun that they started raising some hell in the backyard with their wild games.
-
So when we had the incident at the Main Street bar, all hell broke loose.
Academic text (1997) -
As the party got louder, all the guests were having a blast, creating a total hell in the living room.
-
When the referee made the controversial call, the fans erupted in outrage and all hell broke loose in the stadium.
Synonyms
90
5.1
Great damage and confusion that makes things stop working
76
7.3
Violent disorder and chaos that causes damage or a lot of trouble
41
7.9
A very dirty, unpleasant, and dangerous place
18
6.8
A place or situation that causes great suffering and pain
7
7.3
An unpleasant, chaotic place where people act badly toward each other
5
8.2
A situation of great danger and destruction, like war or a big fire
3
9.1
A place where people often secretly do illegal or immoral things
Antonyms
Idioms
- Informal
3
7.9
A sudden time when many people lose control and chaos starts
- Informal
3
8.8
A person or thing that is very active, hard to control and often aggressive
- Informal
2
9.5
For a very long time, often to say something will never happen
Compounds
- Jargon
A situation where too many nested callbacks make code hard to read and change
How Disorderly
Surface Forms
Etymology
Hell can also mean noisy trouble in phrases like 'raise hell'. A helpful way to remember this is to imagine people making such a loud, wild scene that it is like calling up trouble from hell, so to 'raise hell' is to cause a big commotion.