subs. (old).—1. Generic for a place of confinement, as in some games (Sydney), or a cell in a prison: specifically, a place under the Exchequer Chamber, where the king’s debtors were confined.
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Comedy of Errors, iv. 2.
| A hound that rims counter, and yet draws dry-foot well; | |
| One that, before the judgement, carries poor souls to HELL. |
1658. ROBERT SPEED, The Counter Ratt.
| Ask any how such news I tell, | |
| Of Wood-streets Hole, or Poultrys HELL? |
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Secreta. … Also the name of a place in Venice where all their secret records and ancient evidences be kept, as HELL is in Westminster Hall.
2. (old).—A workman’s receptacle for stolen or refuse pieces, as cloth, type, etc.; ONE’S EYE. Also HELL-HOLE and HELL-BOX. See CABBAGE. HELL-MATTER = (printers’) old and battered type.
1589. NASHE, Martin’s Months Minde (GROSART), i. 185. Remember the shreddes that fall into the Tailors HELL, neuer come backe to couer your backe.
1592. GREENE, The Defence of Conny-catching, in Works, xi., 96. This HEL is a place that the tailors haue vnder their shopboord, wher al their stolne shreds is thrust.
1606. JOHN DAY, The Ile of Guls, i. 3. That fellowes pocket is like a tailors HELL, it eats up part of every mans due; ’tis an executioner, and makes away more innocent petitions in one yeere, than a red-headed hangman cuts ropes in an age.
1625. JONSON, The Staple of News, i., 1.
| P. jun. That jest | |
| Has gain’d thy pardon, thou hadst lived condemn’d | |
| To thine own HELL. |
1663. KILLIGREW, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5. (DODSLEY, Old Plays [1780] xi., 452). Careless [addressing a tailor]. Why then, thou art damned. Go, go home, and throw thyself into thine own HELL; it is the next way to the other.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. HELL, the Place where the Taylers lay up their Cabbage, or Remnants, which are sometimes very large.
1698. Money Masters All Things, p. 56, ‘On Linen-Weavers.’
| The cheating Knave some of the Clues does throw | |
| Into his HELL-HOLE: and then lets her know | |
| That he her Web cannot work out o’th’ Loom. |
1704. SWIFT, Tale of a Tub, Sec. iii. The tailor’s HELL is the type of a critic’s common-place book.
1708. KING, The Art of Cookery.
| In Covent Garden did a taylor dwell, | |
| Who might deserve a place in his own HELL. |
1713. The Newest Academy of Compliments.
| When taylors forget to throw cabbage in HELL, | |
| And shorten their bills, that all may be well. |
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1814. LAMB, On the Melancholy of Tailors, in Poems, etc. (Ed. AINGER), p. 333. The tailor sitting over a cave or hollow place, in the cabalistic language of his order, is said to have certain melancholy regions always open under his feet.
1853. Notes and Queries, 1 S., viii., 315, c. 2. The term cabbage, by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word ‘cablesh,’ i.e., wind-fallen wood. And their HELL where they store the cabbage, from helan, to hide.
3. (common).—A gambling house. [Whence SILVER-HELL = a gambling house where only silver is played for; DANCING-HELL = an unchartered hall; and so forth.]
1821. W. T. MONCRIEFF, Tom and Jerry, ii., 4. Jerry. A HELL, Tom? I’m at fault again! Log. A gambling house, Jerry!
1841. The Comic Almanack, p. 280, ‘A Promenade Concert’.
| A man at a HELL, | |
| Playing the part of a Bonnetter well. |
1849. THACKERAY, Pendennis, ch. xxxix. He plays still; he is in a HELL every night almost.
1890. The Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, c. 2. These private HELLS nevertheless exist, and as all money found on the premises is seized by the police, the players have to resort to all kinds of subterfuge when the three loud knocks are heard which indicate the presence of the commissaire.
4. (venery).—The female pudendum; cf., HEAVEN. For synonyms, see MONOSYLLABLE. (See BOCCACCIO, Decameron.]
HEAVEN, HELL AND PURGATORY, subs. phr. (old).—Three ale-houses formerly situated near Westminster Hall.
1610. JONSON, The Alchemist, v., 2.
| Dol. He must not break his fast | |
| In Heaven or HELL. |
HELL BROKE LOOSE, subs. phr. (common).—Extreme disorder; anarchy.
1632. P. HAUSTED, The Rivall Friends, v., 10.
| Fye, fye, HELL IS BROKE LOOSE upon me; all her furies | |
| Are come at once t’ assault me. |
1672. MARVELL, The Rehearsal Transposed (GROSART), iii., 212. War broke out, and then to be sure HELL’S BROKE LOOSE.
1703. FARQUHAR, The Inconstant, iv., 4. HELL BROKE LOOSE upon me, and all the furies fluttered about my ears!
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, i., 96. Tho’ HELL’S BROKE LOOSE, and the Devils roar abroad.
HELL OF A (LARK, GOER, ROW, and so forth), adj. phr. (common).—Very much of a ——; a popular intensitive.
ALL TO HELL (or GONE TO HELL), adj. phr. (colloquial).—Utterly ruined.
TO HOPE (or WISH) TO HELL, verb. phr. (common).—To desire intensely.
1891. N. GOULD, The Double Event, p. 229. I HOPE TO H—— the hoise will break his neck and his rider’s too.
TO PLAY (or KICK UP) HELL AND TOMMY, verb. phr. (common).—To ruin utterly. Also, TO PLAY HELL AND BREAK THINGS; TO RAISE HELL; TO MAKE HELL’S DELIGHT.
1837–40. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, p. 287 (Ed. 1862). And in the mean time rob ’em, plunder ’em, and tax ’em; hang their priests, seize their galls, and PLAY HELL AND TOMMY with them, and all because they speak French.
1859. DE QUINCEY, The Cæsars, in Wks. (14 vol., ed. vi., 336, note). About a hundred years earlier Lord Bacon PLAYED ‘H—— AND TOMMY’ when casually raised to the supreme seat in the council by the brief absence in Edinburgh of the king and the Duke of Buckingham.
1867. Lahore Chronicle, 20 May. The Sepoys are burning down the houses, and PLAYING H—— AND TOMMY with the station.
1879. JUSTIN MCCARTHY, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. We’ll have a fine bit of fun, I tell you. I’ve PLAYED HELL-AND-TOMMY already with the lot of them.
TO LEAD APES IN HELL, verb. phr. (old).—To die an old maid. [From a popular superstition.]
1599. HENRY PORTER, The Two Angry Women of Abingdon (DODSLEY, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 294–5). For women that are wise will not LEAD APES IN HELL.… Therefore, come husband: maidenhead adieu.
1600. SHAKESPEARE, Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1. He that is more than youth is not for me, and he that is less than man I am not for him; therefore I will … even LEAD HIS APES INTO HELL.
1605. The London Prodigal, i. 1.
| But tis an old prouerbe, and you know it well, | |
| That women dying maides, LEAD APES IN HELL. |
1611. CHAPMAN, May-Day, v. 2. I am beholden to her; she was loth to have me LEAD APES IN HELL.
c. 1636. The London Chanticleers, Sc. ii. Curds. I’ll always live a virgin. Bud. What, and LEAD APES IN HELL?
1719. D’URFEY, Wit and Mirth; or Pills to Purge Melancholy, i., 179.
| Celladon at that began | |
| To talk of APES IN HELL. |
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Bloudie Jacke of Shrewsberrie.’
| So they say she is now LEADING APES, | |
| Bloudie Jacke! | |
| And mends Bachelors’ small-clothes below. |
TO PUT THE DEVIL INTO HELL, verb. phr. (old).—To copulate.—BOCCACCIO. [HELL = female pudendum.] For synonyms, see GREENS and RIDE.
TO GIVE HELL, verb. phr. (common).—To trounce; abuse; or punish severely. Also (American), TO MAKE ONE SMELL HELL (or A DAMN PARTICULAR SMELL).
HELL-FOR-LEATHER, adv. phr. (common).—With the utmost energy and desperation.
1892. KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Shillin’ a Day.’
| When we rode HELL-FOR-LEATHER | |
| Both squadrons together, | |
| That didn’t care whether we lived or we died. |
LIKE HELL, adv. phr. (common).—Desperately; with all one’s might.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, ch. xxix. I tried every place, everything; went to Ems, to Wiesbaden, to Hombourg, and played LIKE HELL.
GO TO HELL! phr. (common).—An emphatic dismissal: the full phrase is, ‘Go to hell and help the devil to make your mother into a bitch pie.’ [A variant is, ‘Go to hell and pump thunder.’] For analogous phrases, see OATHS.
1836. M. SCOTT, The Cruise of the Midge, p. 72. So, good men, GO TO HELL all of you—do—very mosh go to hell—do.
1889. Daily News, 21 Dec., p. 7, c. 1. He was asked to see somebody about his evidence, and told him TO GO TO HELL.
1892. KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Ford o’ Kabul River.’ Kabul town ’ll GO TO HELL.
HELL AND SCISSORS! intj. (American).—An ejaculation of surprise and ridicule. In England, SCISSORS!
