English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English helle fire, helever, from Old English hellefȳr, equivalent to hell +‎ fire. Cognate with West Frisian helfjoer (hellfire), Dutch hellevuur (hellfire), German Höllenfeuer (hellfire).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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hellfire (countable and uncountable, plural hellfires)

  1. (uncountable) The fire of Hell.
  2. (uncountable) Fire produced by the Devil, or a similar supernatural creature connected to Hell.
  3. (countable) A fire that burns with unusual heat or ferocity.
  4. (countable, military) Ellipsis of AGM-114 Hellfire.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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Adjective

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hellfire (comparative more hellfire, superlative most hellfire)

  1. Of or relating to a violent, apocalyptic and ultimate day of reckoning and judgment; usually characterizing a form of Christian preaching.
    • 1902, William James, “Lectures 4 & 5”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature [] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. [], →OCLC:
      The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the past fifty years, may fairly be called a victory of healthy-mindedness within the church over the morbidness with which the old hell-fire theology was more harmoniously related.
    • 2005, Sang Hyun Lee, The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards, University of Princeton Press, page 253:
      Sermons such as The Eternity of Hell Torments and The Future Punishment of the Wicked Unavoidable and Intolerable, as well as several manuscript examples, serve to mark the distinction between a true hellfire sermon and the proto-eschatological concerns of Sinners [in the Hands of an Angry God], consumed as it is with the here and now.

See also

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Interjection

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hellfire

  1. hell; damn; blast