Skip to main content
helly

helly

9.9
An extremely unpleasant situation that is hard to handle
  • adjective
  • Slang
translation icon : infernal
  • After a helly week at work, she just wanted to relax all weekend.

Examples

  • The campsite became helly when the storm hit and flooded all the tents.

  • The traffic was so helly that it caused immense frustration for everyone stuck in it.

  • The traffic was so helly that it took us hours to get home.

  • This weather is so helly today!

  • The food at that restaurant was just helly.

  • After a helly week dealing with constant deadlines, he felt completely drained.

  • The concert turned helly when the rain started pouring and everyone got soaked.

Synonyms

hellish
vshelly
28 6.1

Very unpleasant and painful, like being in hell

is an informal slang word used for strong unpleasantness or helllike comparison
god-awful
vshelly
  • Informal
16 8.4

Very bad and unpleasant

is slang that evokes helllike quality rather than general dreadfulness
infernal
vshelly
  • Literature
8 8.3

Very evil and cruel, causing great pain or suffering

is less about cruelty and more about general extreme unpleasantness
hellacious
vshelly
  • Informal
3 9.0

Very bad or difficult and hard to deal with

is more about being like hell itself rather than mere difficulty

Antonyms

314 1.0

Giving a gentle feeling of enjoyment

119 1.0

Pleasant to do or experience

How Unpleasant

helly
  • Slang
9.9
awful
1.0
unpleasant
215 1.0
bad
12 4.9

Surface Forms

helly positive

Morphology

helly = hell (transparent) = hell + y

Formed from the noun 'hell' plus the adjectival suffix '-y', so a learner who knows 'hell' and the productive suffix '-y' can infer the meaning.

Etymology

The word helly comes from hell plus the ending -y, which means 'like' or 'full of'. So something helly is like 'hell', very unpleasant or terrible.