one hell of a
28
9.0
- idiom
- NSFW
:
tremendo (informal)
- This is one hell of a nice facility you got here, van Clease.
- make one hell of a
- one hell of a party
- one hell of a story
So I mean, she's got one hell of a story.
- So I mean, she's got one hell of a story.
- We're going to deliver one hell of a workout.
- Today on the True Geordie Podcast, we have one hell of a story.
- You guys have one hell of a story here, and very complicated.
- Well, Rodger, I want to wrap this thing up, but you have got one hell of a story behind you.
- If there's one thing we know about a narcissistic person, it's that they are one hell of a salesperson.
- But no matter how loudly your body is talking to you, still your mind can be one hell of a gaslighter.
- He has lived one hell of a life of hardship and triumph as he writes about in his book called The Eagle and the Dragon.
Examples
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Rudy Wiebe and Sheldon Funk are Canadian Mennonites with one hell of a frontier story.
Blog text (32) -
And it has been one hell of a crazy ride.
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God, that was one hell of a risk going back there.
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And she gave us one hell of a ride.
Blog text (15) -
That must have been one hell of a Super Bowl party.
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Now, that is one hell of an entrance!
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I met him 10 years ago, and in the span of a decade we've been on one hell of a ride.
Blog text (10) -
I've been translating that game for the last couple of months, and I have to say, it is one hell of a sequel.
Blog text (27) -
By combining amazing action and tension with big, philosophical ideas, 'Deus Ex' is smart, ballsy, and will make one hell of a movie.
Blog text (16) -
That must have been one hell of a Super Bowl party.
Synonyms
∞
3.2
A phrase that shows someone or something is very noticeable and impressive
77
8.1
Very impressive or very difficult
29
9.1
A thing that is very impressive or hard to deal with
24
9.9
An informal way to say something is very impressive or large to show strong feeling
21
4.1
Very good and impressive
21
5.4
So wonderful or strange that words cannot show it
1
8.6
Very impressive or exciting in a strong way
Antonyms
How Intense
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituent 'hell' clearly conveys a strong, intense quality, so a learner who knows the words can often infer that the phrase is an emphatic intensifier meaning 'very' or 'extremely'. However, the exact nuance (positive vs. negative, informal/vulgar register and the fixed pattern 'one hell of a X') is idiomatic and not fully predictable from the parts alone, so prior exposure is usually needed for full understanding.
Etymology
One hell of a comes from using the word hell to show something very strong or extreme, and adding one points to a single, powerful example. So the phrase is used to say something is 'very impressive' or 'very intense'.