hell mend him
- idiom
- Offensive
:
que se joda (vulgar)
- You can't help someone who won't help themselves; hell mend him.
Examples
-
If he chooses to ignore the rules, then hell mend him!
-
If they want to ignore advice, then hell mend them.
-
He was warned about the risks, but hell mend him if he ignores them.
-
If she spends all her money again, hell mend her.
-
He was warned about the risks, but hell mend him if he ignores them.
-
If they want to ignore advice, then hell mend them.
-
If she spends all her money again, hell mend her.
Synonyms
139
4.2
Punish someone so they learn not to do it again
19
4.5
Accept and deal with unpleasant results or criticism for something you did
13
6.7
To receive punishment or bad results for doing wrong
9
7.7
Accept the bad result of something you did
2
8.1
To accept unpleasant results and sometimes punishment for something you did
To be punished for something you did wrong
To accept the bad results of your own choices
Antonyms
How Severe
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal meanings of 'hell' (a place of suffering) + 'mend' (to repair) + 'him' do not compose to the idiomatic sense of wishing someone suffer or be left to consequences; a learner who knows the constituents would not predict this evaluative/expletive use. This phrase is dialectal/idiomatic and its force is language-specific and unpredictable, so it would be opaque to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Hell mend him may come from older wishes like 'God mend him' but turned into a rude image: imagine sending someone to hell to be mended, meaning 'fixed', rather than helped. So people say it to show they do not care if someone 'suffers' or gets the bad result of their actions.