Word.ws English Dictionary

gave someone hell

gave someone hell is the simple past of give someone hell.

Meaning of give someone hell

Verb

give someone hell (third-person singular simple present gives someone hell, present participle giving someone hell, simple past gave someone hell, past participle given someone hell)

  1. (idiomatic) To castigate someone; to dress them down.
    • Near-synonym: raise hell
    Synonyms:
    raise hell
  2. To torment; To make miserable.
    • Yes, she desired to see Edward suffer. And, by God, she gave him hell . She gave him an unimaginable hell.1915, Madox Ford, The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion, page 274
  3. To put up a fight against; to battle strongly and effectively.
    • A nickname of U.S. President Harry Truman was "Give-'em-Hell Harry" because he could really give them hell when he wanted to.

Questions about gave someone hell

What is gave someone hell the simple past of?
Gave someone hell is the simple past of give someone hell.

Words near gave someone hell in the dictionary

  1. gave someone goss
  2. gave someone gray hair
  3. gave someone grey hair
  4. gave someone grief
  5. gave someone Hail Columbia
  6. gave someone hell
  7. gave someone his gruel
  8. gave someone his hat
  9. gave someone Jesse
  10. gave someone Jessie
  11. gave someone line

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gave someone hell (page history and authors); give someone hell (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.

Last updated:

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