Word.ws English Dictionary

gives someone hell

gives someone hell is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 gives someone hell

What is gives someone hell the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Gives someone hell is the third-person singular simple present indicative of give someone hell.

Words near gives someone hell in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gives 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.

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