Word.ws English Dictionary

brimstone

UK/ˈbɹɪmstəʊn//ˈbɹɪmstoʊn/

brimstone noun: the sulfur of hell; hell, damnation.

brimstone: the sulfur of hell; hell, damnation
Image: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

brimstone (countable and uncountable, plural brimstones)

  1. The sulfur of hell; hell, damnation.
    • For griefe thereof, and diuelish despight, / From his infernall fournace forth he threw / Huge flames, that dimmed all the heauens light, / Enrold in duskish smoke and brimstone blew.1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • And thus I sawe the horses in the vision, and them that sate on them, hauing brest-plates of fire and of Iacinct, and brimstone, & the heades of the horses were as the heads of Lions, and out of their mouthes issued fire, and smoke, and brimstone.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 9:17
  2. (archaic) Sulfur.
    • Weel I wot I wad be broken if I were to gie sic weight to the folk that come to buy our pepper and brimstone, and suchlike sweetmeats.1816, [Walter Scott], The Antiquary. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and...
    • Don't think, young man, that we go to the expense of flower of brimstone and molasses, just to purify them.1838 March – 1839 October, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1839, →OCLC
  3. (obsolete) A whore.
    • I went to the park, picked up a low Brimstone, called myself a Barber, & agreed with her for Sixpence, went to the bottom of the park, arm in arm, & dipped my machine in the Canal […].1763, James Boswell, edited by Gordon Turnbull, London Journal 1762-1763, Penguin, published 2014, page 237
  4. (archaic) Used attributively as an intensifier in exclamations.
    • You are a brimstone pig. You're a head of swine!1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC
    • You're a brimstone idiot.1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC
  5. The butterfly Gonepteryx rhamni of the Pieridae family.
    • A brimstone butterfly flirted among the purple shadows under the palms.1954, Ian Fleming, “Passionate Leave”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 242
  6. (Internet) Online content of exceptionally poor quality, lower than coal.
    Antonyms:
    gemerald

brimstone meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Indonesian

brimstone in Tamil

கற்கந்தகம்

brimstone in Telugu

brimstone
గంధకాశ్మము gandhakāśmamu

brimstone in Malayalam

ഗന്ധകം

brimstone in Indonesian

the sulfur of Hell
belerang

Examples of brimstone in a sentence

  • Till, as a signal giv'n, th' uplifted Spear / Of their great Sultan waving to direct / Thir course, in even ballance down they light / On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain; / A multitude.1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert...
  • [W]hen he [the Devil] is aweary of vice, and aweary of virtue, used up as to brimstone, and used up as to bliss […]1854, Charles Dickens, “Explosion”, in Hard Times. For These Times, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, 2nd book (Reaping), page 212:
  • But the sulphurous brimstone which burns in hell is a substance which is specially designed to burn for ever and for ever with unspeakable fury.1916, James Joyce, chapter III, in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, N.Y.: B[enjamin] W. Huebsch, →OCLC, page 138:

All 13 example sentences with brimstone

Antonyms of brimstone

Forms of brimstone

pluralbrimstones

Plural of brimstone: brimstones

Origin of brimstone

From Middle English brymston, brimston, bremston, forms of brinston, brenston, bernston, from Old English brynstān (“brimstone”, literally “burn-stone”), equivalent to burn + stone. Cognate with Scots brunstane (“brimstone”), Icelandic brennisteinn (“sulfur / sulphur, brimstone”), German Bernstein (“amber”). Compare also brimfire. More at burn, stone. Although once a synonym for sulfur, the word is now largely restricted to poetic and Biblical usage.

Words formed from brimstone

Phrases with brimstone

Questions about brimstone

What does brimstone mean?
Brimstone means the sulfur of hell; hell, damnation.
What is brimstone in Tamil?
Brimstone in Tamil is கற்கந்தகம். See Brimstone meaning in Tamil.
How do you use brimstone in a sentence?
Till, as a signal giv'n, th' uplifted Spear / Of their great Sultan waving to direct / Thir course, in even ballance down they light / On the firm brimstone, and fill all the Plain; / A multitude.
What part of speech is brimstone?
Brimstone is a noun.
How do you pronounce brimstone?
Brimstone is pronounced /ˈbɹɪmstəʊn/ (UK).
What is the plural of brimstone?
The plural of brimstone is brimstones.

Words near brimstone in the dictionary

  1. brims over
  2. Brimscombe
  3. Brimscombe and Thrupp
  4. Brimsdown
  5. Brimson
  6. brimstone
  7. brimstone flower
  8. brimstone flowers
  9. brimstone match
  10. brimstone matches
  11. brimstones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brimstone (page history and authors); brimstone (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); గంధకాశ్మము (Telugu) (page history and authors); brimstone (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vininn126-brimstone.wav.

Cite this entry: “brimstone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brimstone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.