put someone through hell
English Meaning & Definitions
To cause someone to experience a great deal of suffering, emotional distress, or extreme difficulty.
- “His ex-wife put him through hell during their long and bitter custody battle.”
- “The manager put the entire team through hell by demanding impossible deadlines and constant overtime.”
English Synonyms & Near Equivalents
English Antonyms & Opposites
Comprehensive Thesaurus Breakdown
Compare formal, informal, literary synonyms and register nuances for “put someone through hell”.
The idiom draws upon the theological and mythological concept of 'hell' as a place of extreme suffering, torment, and fire. By the 19th century, the phrase 'go through hell' became a common metaphorical expression for enduring a period of intense hardship. The causative form 'put someone through hell' emerged to describe the active infliction of such misery upon another person, emphasizing the perpetrator's role in creating a traumatic or agonizing experience for the victim.
Imagine a person literally pushing someone into a furnace; it helps visualize the intense, fiery suffering implied by the phrase.
Frequently Asked Questions About “put someone through hell”
1. What is the meaning of “put someone through hell” in English?
In English, put someone through hell (idiom) is defined as: “To cause someone to experience a great deal of suffering, emotional distress, or extreme difficulty.”.
2. How do you use “put someone through hell” in a sentence?
“His ex-wife put him through hell during their long and bitter custody battle.”
3. What are English synonyms of “put someone through hell”?
4. What is the etymology and word origin of “put someone through hell”?
The idiom draws upon the theological and mythological concept of 'hell' as a place of extreme suffering, torment, and fire. By the 19th century, the phrase 'go through hell' became a common metaphorical expression for enduring a period of intense hardship. The causative form 'put someone through hell' emerged to describe the active infliction of such misery upon another person, emphasizing the perpetrator's role in creating a traumatic or agonizing experience for the victim.
🇬🇧More English Words to English
View all English words →The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.
A specific duration of time equal to one hour and forty-six minutes and twelve seconds.
The cardinal number equal to one thousand million (1,000,000,000), expressed in scientific notation as 10^9.
A specific duration of time equivalent to one hour and forty-six minutes.