Word.ws English Dictionary

giving someone hell

giving someone hell is the present participle and gerund 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 giving someone hell

What is giving someone hell the present participle and gerund of?
Giving someone hell is the present participle and gerund of give someone hell.

Words near giving someone hell in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: giving 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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