hellfire

English

From Middle English helle fire, helever, from Old English hellefȳr, equivalent to hell +‎ fire. Cognate with West Frisian helfjoer (“hellfire”), Dutch hellevuur (“hellfire”), German Höllenfeuer (“hellfire”).

hellfire (countable and uncountable, plural hellfires)

(uncountable) The fire of Hell.
(uncountable) Fire produced by the Devil, or a similar supernatural creature connected to Hell.
(countable) A fire that burns with unusual heat or ferocity.
(countable, military) Ellipsis of AGM-114 Hellfire.

sometimes capitalized, hyphenated, or both: Hellfire, hell-fire, Hell-fire; also as fires of hell

fire of hell

Arabic: نَارُ جَهَنَّم f (nāru jahannam)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 地獄之火／地狱之火 (dìyùzhīhuǒ), 業火／业火 (zh) (:yèhuǒ)
Dutch: hellevuur (nl) n
Estonian: põrgutuli
Finnish: helvetin tuli
French: feu de l’enfer m
German: Höllenfeuer (de) n
Greek: πυρ το εξώτερο n (pyr to exótero)
Hindi: दोजग (hi) (dojag), जहन्नम (hi) m (jahannam)
Italian: fuoco d'inferno m, fiamme dell'inferno f pl
Japanese: 業火 (ja) (ごうか, gōka)
Persian: دوزخ (fa) (dowzax)
Plautdietsch: Halenfia n
Polish: ogień piekielny m
Portuguese: fogo do inferno m
Russian: гее́нна о́гненная f (gejénna ógnennaja), а́дский ого́нь m (ádskij ogónʹ)
Serbo-Croatian: паклени огањ m, pakleni oganj m
Urdu: دوزخ (dozax), جہنم m (jahannam)

fire caused by the Devil

intensive fire

hellfire (comparative more hellfire, superlative most hellfire)

Of or relating to a violent, apocalyptic and ultimate day of reckoning and judgment; usually characterizing a form of Christian preaching.
- 1902, William James, “Lectures 4 & 5”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:
  The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the past fifty years, may fairly be called a victory of healthy-mindedness within the church over the morbidness with which the old hell-fire theology was more harmoniously related.
- 2005, Sang Hyun Lee, The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards, University of Princeton Press, page 253:
  Sermons such as The Eternity of Hell Torments and The Future Punishment of the Wicked Unavoidable and Intolerable, as well as several manuscript examples, serve to mark the distinction between a true hellfire sermon and the proto-eschatological concerns of Sinners [in the Hands of an Angry God], consumed as it is with the here and now.

hellfire