Word.ws English Dictionary

no rest for the wicked

no rest for the wicked proverb: eternal torment in hell awaits sinners.

Proverb

no rest for the wicked

  1. (literally) Eternal torment in hell awaits sinners.
  2. (humorous) People who are wicked must work harder than normal people.

Origin of no rest for the wicked

From the Book of Isaiah verses 48:22 and 57:20-21, originally Hebrew. First attested in English in 1535, in Coverdale Bible of Miles Coverdale. Quoted in biblical sense for centuries, humorous secular sense popularized from 1930s, particularly due to use as title of popular Little Orphan Annie strip by Harold Gray in 1933. According to rabbinical tradition, the word “wicked” refers only to king Nebuchadnezzar II and his descendants.

Questions about no rest for the wicked

What does no rest for the wicked mean?
No rest for the wicked means eternal torment in hell awaits sinners.
What part of speech is no rest for the wicked?
No rest for the wicked is a proverb.

Words near no rest for the wicked in the dictionary

  1. no question
  2. no questions asked
  3. no really
  4. no relation
  5. no rest for the weary
  6. no rest for the wicked
  7. no result
  8. no results
  9. no returns
  10. no rights reserved
  11. no room at the inn

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no rest for the wicked (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-no rest for the wicked.wav.

Cite this entry: “no rest for the wicked.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/no_rest_for_the_wicked. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.