noun

1. Bible the place where the spirits of the dead are
2. Theol.
   1. a state or place of woe and anguish, arrived at by the wicked after death; specif., esp. in Christian theology, the state or place of total and final separation from God and so of eternal misery and suffering, arrived at by those who die unrepentant in grave sin
   2. popularly this state or place as the abode of Satan and of all other devils and of all the damned
   3. those in hell
   4. the powers of hell, evil, etc.
3. any place or condition of evil, pain, disorder, cruelty, etc.
4. Informal
   1. any extremely disagreeable, unsettling, or punishing treatment or experience, or the cause or source of this
   2. devilish spirits or excitement full of hell

Etymology: ME helle < OE hel (akin to Ger hölle, hell & ON Hel, the underworld goddess, Hel) < base of helan, to cover, hide < IE base *el-, to hide, cover up > L celare, to hide

intransitive verb

interjection