English

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Etymology

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From Middle English helly, hellic, from Old English hellīċ (of hell, hellish, infernal), equivalent to hell +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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helly (comparative more helly, superlative most helly)

  1. (obsolete) Hellish, infernal.
    • '1603, Samuel Harsnet, “A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures, quoted in 2013'”, in Shakespeare's England: Life in Elizabethan & Jacobean Times, →ISBN:
      These monster-swarms his Holiness and his helly crew have scraped and raked together out of old doting historiographers, wizardising augurs, imposturing soothsayers, dreaming poets, chimerical conceiters, and coiners of fables, [] .
    • 1892, Theodore Sydney Vaughn, Satan in Arms Against Columbus, page 138:
      Then wavered all the rebel rings, And of a sudden, ere a single blow Was struck, precipitous they shrieking fled, And sought the portals of their Helly home.
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References

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