hell

Less common meanings

8. 8
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To move very fast and recklessly, often noisily.

   Teenagers hell up and down this road on dirt bikes every weekend.

   She came helling down the driveway on her motorcycle.

   Similarrace, tear, speed, zoom, barrel

   Note

   Speed with a curse in it: William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1929) complains that she "had to come helling in there." Notice the shape. A present participle follows come, and a direction word such as in completes it. The verb pairs naturally with words of direction, and it stays colloquial and sometimes vulgar. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • William Faulkner wrote The Sound and the Fury. en.wikisource.org
   • The Sound and the Fury was first published in 1929. captainahabsrarebooks.com
   • The novel contains the exact words "had to come helling in there." The complaint belongs to its narrator Jason Compson. en.wikisource.org
   • In the quotation, the present participle helling follows come, with directional in. en.wikisource.org
9. 9
   verbraretransitive

   To make a place hellish, or to cast a person into hell.

   Similardamn, doom, ravage, devastate

   Note

   The spelling hides three different verbs. This one is the noun turned into a verb, with the forms helled and helling. Two unrelated words look exactly the same: the metalworker's word for burnishing, borrowed from German, and the old verb meaning "pour", from Old Norse. Read helled in context, because it may mean ruined, polished or poured. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • Hell represents three verbs with distinct etymologies. en.wiktionary.org
   • The verb meaning to make hellish or place someone in hell derives from the noun hell. en.wiktionary.org
   • The past tense and past participle are helled; the present participle is helling. en.wiktionary.org
   • The metalworking verb means to burnish and comes from German hellen. en.wiktionary.org
   • The old verb meaning pour comes through Middle English hellen from Old Norse hella. en.wiktionary.org
   • Depending on which verb is intended, helled can mean made hellish, burnished, or poured. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    waiting area (game)nouncountable or uncountable

    In certain games of chase, the place where those who are caught are taken and held.

    Similarjail, prison

11. 11
    gambling placenouncountable

    A place where gambling is carried on.

    By midnight, the gaming hell in St. James's was crowded with young gentlemen playing hazard.

    She inherited a fortune and lost most of it in a fashionable hell.

    Similarcasino

    Note

    Novelists from Thackeray to Conrad used it for the gaming house, often in the compound gambling hell. William Black writes of "a convenient little gambling hell" in Green Pastures and Piccadilly (1877). Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent (1907) sets keepers of gambling hells beside keepers of disorderly houses. On its own it also appears in the plural, as when a character in Thackeray's Pendennis warns against losing money "at the hells." Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Novelists including Thackeray and Conrad used hell to mean a gambling house. en.wiktionary.org
    • William Black wrote Green Pastures and Piccadilly, first published in 1877. static-prod.lib.princeton.edu
    • Green Pastures and Piccadilly contains the words "a convenient little gambling hell". en.wiktionary.org
    • The first book edition appeared in 1907. American serialization ran from October 1906 to January 1907. upload.wikimedia.org
    • The Secret Agent places keepers of gambling hells alongside keepers of disorderly houses. gutenberg.org
    • The words occur in Thackeray's The History of Pendennis, chapter 61, but the warning is spoken by Altamont to Sir Francis Clavering. online-literature.com
12. 12
    scrap boxnounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    The receptacle into which a tailor throws fabric scraps, or a printer discards broken type.

    This sturdy Squire, he had, as well As the bold Trojan Knight, seen Hell.

    1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”

    Note

    Two trades once gave their scrap bins this grim name: the tailor threw his shreds into hell, and the printer threw his broken type there. Samuel Butler's Hudibras puns on it when its sturdy squire, like the bold Trojan knight, has "seen Hell." Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Tailors and printers historically called their scrap receptacles hell. en.wiktionary.org
    • Samuel Butler wrote Hudibras. gutenberg.org
    • The narrator describes the sturdy squire as having "seen Hell," like the bold Trojan knight. gutenberg.org
    • The Hudibras passage puns on the tailor's meaning of hell. gutenberg.org
13. 13
    verbraretransitive

    To add luster to metal; to burnish silver or gold to a shine.

    To hell gold or gilt workː take two ounces of tartar, two ounces of sulfur.. and it will give it a fine luster.

    1770, Godfrey Smith, The Laboratory

    Similarburnish, polish, shine, buff

    Oppositetarnish, dull

    Note

    A metalworker's term from a different word altogether: German hellen, "to brighten, burnish," related to German hell, "clear, bright." Godfrey Smith's The Laboratory, or School of Arts, gives a recipe "to hell gold or gilt work" using tartar and sulfur for a fine luster. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The metalworking verb has a separate origin in German hellen, meaning to brighten or burnish, related to German hell, meaning clear or bright. en.wiktionary.org
    • Godfrey Smith compiled The Laboratory, or School of Arts. wellcomecollection.org
    • The book contains the quoted instruction and a recipe using tartar and sulfur to produce a fine luster. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    verbdialectaltransitive

    To pour out a quantity of liquid, often tipping it out vigorously.

    Similarpour, slosh, tip, dump, empty

    Note

    Another separate word, this one comes from Old Norse hella, "to pour." Its cousins are Icelandic hella, Norwegian helle and Swedish hälla, and English hield is related. Josiah Relph's The Harvest uses it in a regional spelling, when a sickle cuts a hand: "Down hell'd the bluid." Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The pouring verb has a separate origin, from Old Norse hella through Middle English hellen. en.wiktionary.org
    • Icelandic hella, Norwegian helle and Swedish hälla are cognates. en.wiktionary.org
    • English hield is related. en.wiktionary.org
    • Josiah Relph wrote the poem referred to as The Harvest. gredos.usal.es
    • The poem uses the regional form hell'd in the quoted words, describing blood flowing after a sickle cuts the speaker's hand. gredos.usal.es