Word.ws English Dictionary

hell's bells

/ˌhɛlz ˈbɛlz/

hell's bells interjection: an expression of frustration, outrage, or surprise.

Interjection

  1. (mildly, vulgar) An expression of frustration, outrage, or surprise.
    • What's the matter with his talking so polite? Hell's bells, Harry, no harm in being polite. There's some regular he-men that are just as polite as women, prett' near.1920, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXIX, in Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, →OCLC, section V, page 352
    • "You've never had a woman in any of your other pictures. Why do you want one for this?" / "Hell's Bells! You don't think I'm consulting my own preference, I hope."1932, Edgar Wallace, Merian C[aldwell] Cooper, novelization by Delos W[heeler] Lovelace, chapter 1, in King Kong, trade softcover edition, Nevada City, Calif.: Underwood Books, published 2005, →ISBN...

Noun

hell's bells pl (plural only)

  1. (plural, plural-only) Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium).

Synonyms of hell's bells

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All synonyms of hell's bells

Origin of hell's bells

From hell + -’s + bells, possibly an elaboration of hell (used to express anger, discontent, or unhappiness) with bells chosen to rhyme with hell’s. The noun sense (Datura stramonium) may allude to the often spiny seed capsules of the poisonous plant which somewhat resemble bells when they mature and split open; compare devil's cucumber, devil's snare, devil's trumpet, and devil's weed which are other common names for the plant.

Questions about hell's bells

What does hell's bells mean?
Hell's bells means an expression of frustration, outrage, or surprise.
What part of speech is hell's bells?
Hell's bells can be an interjection or a noun.
How do you pronounce hell's bells?
Hell's bells is pronounced /ˌhɛlz ˈbɛlz/ (UK).

Words near hell's bells in the dictionary

  1. hell to the no
  2. hell week
  3. hell weeks
  4. hell west and crooked
  5. hell yeah
  6. hell's bells
  7. hell's fire anemone
  8. hell's fire anemones
  9. Hell's Forty Acres
  10. hell's itch
  11. Hell's Kitchen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hell's bells (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)-Vealhurl-hell's bells.wav.

Cite this entry: “hell's bells.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hell%27s_bells. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.