hell to pay
19
8.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
graves consecuencias
- There's going to be hell to pay.
- gonna be hell to pay
- hell to pay when I get
If you ever discontinue this Aesop, there'll be hell to pay.
- If you ever discontinue this Aesop, there'll be hell to pay.
- And so, yeah, you can replace these things with these other things, but there's going to be hell to pay.
- that is the narcissistic relationship, if you don't recognize every single thing that they do, there will be hell to pay.
- But then you also know that if you don't react the right way, even if even if they get you something that doesn't make any sense, there will be hell to pay.
- There really wasn't very much left for hell to pay.
Examples
-
If they make a fool of me, there's going to be hell to pay.
-
If he don't get back here pretty soon, there's gonna be hell to pay.
-
When this crisis is over, there will be hell to pay.
Fiction book (1994) -
There would be hell to pay the next morning.
Fiction book (2002) -
Most who do come forward have hell to pay; they get dragged through the mud.
Blog text (4) -
And if you didn't follow the rules, there was hell to pay.
-
I knew there'd be hell to pay if I showed up late for work.
Fiction book (1991) -
If Becky caught her at this game, there would be hell to pay.
Fiction book (2002) -
- If I find out you all lied to me, there'll be hell to pay.
-
If you don't finish your project on time, there will be hell to pay with the boss.
Synonyms
∞
3.7
A very painful or difficult experience
720
1.3
An action that makes someone suffer for breaking a rule, like a fine or time in prison
87
7.5
Punishment people give because someone did something wrong and others think it is fair
11
9.1
A punishment someone deserves for bad actions
1
9.9
A punishment or strong blame for doing something wrong
Antonyms
How Severe
176
7.0
- Informal
19
8.6
∞
3.1
∞
1.0
∞
1.2
62
3.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'hell' (intense suffering) and 'pay' (to suffer a penalty) together transparently signal the idea of serious consequences, so a B1 learner who knows both words could plausibly infer the general meaning. However, the fixed idiomatic phrasing and the odd syntactic link ('there will be hell to pay') are not fully predictable from the parts and feel somewhat idiomatic/archaic, so full comprehension and correct usage require prior exposure.
Etymology
Hell to pay may come from old sailors: to pay meant covering a ship's cracks with hot tar, and hell (or 'the devil') was a name for a very bad seam. That's why the phrase came to mean 'severe trouble'.