Word.ws English Dictionary

fire and brimstone

fire and brimstone noun: the traditional punishments of Hell.

Noun

fire and brimstone (uncountable)

  1. The traditional punishments of Hell.
    • And the third Angel followed them, ſaying with a lowd voice, If any man worship the beaſt and his image, and receiue his marke in his forehead, or in his hand, / The ſame ſhall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God, which is powred out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and hee ſhall...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 14:9–10
  2. (colloquial) A commotion.
    • "I'll tell J., but we can hardly yank the girl out as well. It would raise fire and brimstone."1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London

Adjective

fire and brimstone (not comparable)

  1. Referencing or emphasizing the power and wrath of God.
    • That preacher gave a real fire and brimstone sermon!
    • The fire-and-brimstone preacher gave the city council a severe tongue-lashing after they voted on a zoning ordinance allowing a new strip club to open.

Forms of fire and brimstone

alternative formfire-and-brimstone

Origin of fire and brimstone

Calque of Biblical Hebrew גׇּפְרִ֣ית וָאֵ֑שׁ (gofrit va’esh) and Ancient Greek πυρὸς καὶ θείου (puròs kaì theíou), appearing in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. "brimstone" is an old word for sulfur.

Questions about fire and brimstone

What does fire and brimstone mean?
Fire and brimstone means the traditional punishments of Hell.
What part of speech is fire and brimstone?
Fire and brimstone can be a noun or an adjective.

Words near fire and brimstone in the dictionary

  1. fire alarm horn
  2. fire alarm horns
  3. fire alarm pull station
  4. fire alarm system
  5. fire alarms
  6. fire and brimstone
  7. fire and forget
  8. fire ant
  9. fire ants
  10. fire appliance
  11. fire appliances

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fire and brimstone (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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