the hell

English

Alternative forms

• in the hell

Adverb

the hell (not comparable)

1. (mildly vulgar) Used to indicate emphatic rejection of an assertion or request.

   Synonyms: like hell, the hell you say, (postpositional) hell

   A: I can run faster than a horse.
   B: The hell you can!

   • 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger:

     'You stay here, sir,' O'Bannion instructed.
     'The hell I will,' Feeney said.

2. (mildly vulgar) Expletive used for emphasis, typically after an interrogative term or relative pronoun.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:the dickens

   What the hell was that?

   • 1989 December 17, Christopher Wittke, “On The Edge In The '80s”, in Gay Community News, volume 17, number 23, page 11:

     D'Allesandro was particularly adept at that kind of flash-forward-then-backward-all-the-hell-over-the-place kind of narrative and like a tourist following a well-seasoned guide, you never lose track of the line.

   • 2009 February 19, Gareth Lewis, Southern Daily Echo‎:

     “Whoever the hell is running the place now has made a terrible mess of it,” he said... “Not in the sense that it looks different, or that it isn't pretty much permanently full. It's just that the food as gone utterly down the khazi.”

Translations

indication of emphatic rejection of an assertion

Esperanto: diable (eo) Finnish: paskat (fi), vitut (fi), paskanmarjat (fi) French: mais bien sûr (fr), que dalle (fr) German: als ob (de) Italian: col cazzo Swedish: så fan heller, i helvete heller

expletive used for emphasis after an interrogative term

German: zur Hölle Italian: cazzo (it), minchia (it), diavolo (it), diamine Polish: do diabła (pl), do cholery (pl), do jasnej Romanian: dracu', naiba (ro), mama naibii, mama dracului, puii mei, pana mea, mama mă-sii Swedish: fan (sv), i helvete (sv), tusan (sv)

Interjection

the hell

1. (mildly vulgar) Ellipsis of what the hell: an exclamation indicating surprise or dismay.
   • 2013, Jonathan Latimer, The Lady in the Morgue‎, →ISBN:

     “She said she had a date later!”
     “The hell!” exclaimed Crane.

Pronoun

the hell

1. (mildly vulgar, slang, interrogative) Ellipsis of what the hell: what.

   The hell is that?

   • 2023, James P. Sandoval, “Solomon's Solution”, in But a Jape‎ (webcomic):

     The hell am I supposed to do with half a kid?

   • 2006 October 1, Dennis Lehane, “Refugees” (00:32:06), in The Wire, season 4, episode 4:

     Wilson: He's right. They endorse Royce, fine, the hell else they gonna do?

   • 2024 May 16, very tall bart, [YTP] State of the Union‎, spoken by Jordan Peterson (Jordan Peterson):

     I’ll tell you a story. The hell's his name? Might be Herbert… Hitler came on me full force. And that was explosive.