Definition of "hell"

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Proverbs 23:14

Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost

Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.

1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], Act III, page 39

Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke.

1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.

1879, General William T. Sherman, commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy

Why, am I dying? / Kill, have no fear / Lie, live off lying / Hell, hell is here

1986, “Disposable Heroes”, in Metallica (music), Master of Puppets

Here’s five-and-twenty for you. Don’t be losing it at the hells now.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850

a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless

1877, William Black, Green Pastures and Piccadilly

But there was also about him an indescribable air which no mechanic could have acquired in the practice of his handicraft however dishonestly exercised: [...] the air of moral nihilism common to keepers of gambling hells and disorderly houses; [...]

1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, page 15

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

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905

O hell! what have we here?A carrion Death, within whose empty eyeThere is a written scroll! […]

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene vii]

‘I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’‘Thank you, sir.’Did he hell. They never bloody did.

1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, London: Heinemann, page 35

I had already lost thirteen points, all because she had to come helling in there at twelve, worrying me about that letter.

1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

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: Or, School of Arts

Gosh, the sickle went into me handː Down hell'd the bluid.

18th century, unknown author, The Harvest or Bashful Shepherd