hellfire means of or relating to a violent, apocalyptic and ultimate day of reckoning and judgment; usually characterizing a form of Christian preaching. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 77 out of 100.
hellfire is pronounced /ˈhɛlˌfaɪə/.
Why “hellfire” is a great word
HELLFIRE — [Adjective] Of or relating to violent, apocalyptic judgment, especially as characterized by a form of Christian preaching. From Middle English helle fire, helever, from Old English hellefȳr, equivalent to hell + fire. Unlike brimstone (which specifies the sulfur of divine punishment) or Gehenna (which names a specific eschatological place), hellfire is the encompassing, elemental concept of punitive flame. It is the crackling timbre of a preacher's voice promising eternal combustion, the lurid orange of a medieval doom painting, and the imagined scent of scorched stone and damned souls—the ultimate conflagration, not of cleansing, but of endless, calculating wrath.
Etymology
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”).
adj
- Of or relating to a violent, apocalyptic and ultimate day of reckoning and judgment; usually characterizing a form of Christian preaching.“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.”
noun
- The fire of Hell.“The sound of the gang was diminishing into the distance, and the prophet of doom, restored to eloquence, was sending threatful bolts of damnation, hell-fire, and a brimstone gehenna hurtling after them.”
- Fire produced by the Devil, or a similar supernatural creature connected to Hell.
- A fire that burns with unusual heat or ferocity.