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HELLISH
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Extremely evil or cruel; expressive of cruelty or befitting hell
Example:
unholy grimaces
Synonyms:
demonic; diabolic; diabolical; fiendish; hellish; infernal; satanic; unholy
Classified under:
Similar:
evil (morally bad or wrong)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(informal) very unpleasant
Example:
stop that god-awful racket
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
unpleasant (offensive or disagreeable; causing discomfort or unhappiness)
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Context examples:
It would be impossible to describe the expression of hate and baffled malignity—of anger and hellish rage—which came over the Count's face.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
He had now seen the full deformity of that creature that shared with him some of the phenomena of consciousness, and was co-heir with him to death: and beyond these links of community, which in themselves made the most poignant part of his distress, he thought of Hyde, for all his energy of life, as of something not only hellish but inorganic.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Supposing that this unhappy young man’s story were absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade?
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Let the cursed and hellish monster drink deep of agony; let him feel the despair that now torments me.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
As we burst into the room, the Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Have you seen that awful den of hellish infamy—with the very moonlight alive with grisly shapes, and every speck of dust that whirls in the wind a devouring monster in embryo?
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
I know not by what chain of thought the idea presented itself, but it instantly darted into my mind that the murderer had come to mock at my misery and taunt me with the death of Clerval, as a new incitement for me to comply with his hellish desires.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I gazed on my victim, and my heart swelled with exultation and hellish triumph; clapping my hands, I exclaimed, ‘I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him.’
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Great God! If for one instant I had thought what might be the hellish intention of my fiendish adversary, I would rather have banished myself for ever from my native country and wandered a friendless outcast over the earth than have consented to this miserable marriage.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
