go to hell
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See also: go-to-hell
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]The third sense is first attested in Shakespeare. The second sense is a variation of older go to the devil. The literal sense is attested since Old English with various verbs for "to go".[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]Audio (Mid-Atlantic US): (file)
Verb
[edit]go to hell (third-person singular simple present goes to hell, present participle going to hell, simple past went to hell, past participle gone to hell)
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see go, to, hell.
- To go out the window; be ruined; be now useless.
- Well, that plan has gone to hell.
- 2024 August 4, George Chidi, quoting Donald Trump, “Name-calling and hyperbole: Trump continues fear-mongering fest at Georgia rally”, in The Guardian[1], →ISSN:
- In my opinion, they want us to lose. If we lose Georgia, we lose the whole thing and our country goes to hell.
- Expression of anger and contempt directed at someone, especially after that individual has done something very wrong.
- Why did Nancy do that to Jake? She can go to hell.
- You want me to voluntarily work the weekend without pay? Go to hell!
- c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 173, line 21:
- Let Fortune goe to hell for it, not I.
- 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
- "Oh, go to hell!" said Silas, and kicked open his own unlatched door.
Synonyms
[edit]- (to be ruined or useless): go out the window, go to pot, go down the drain, go down the toilet
- (go to Hell): go to Halifax
- (in imperative): get fucked
Translations
[edit]to be ruined, become useless
|
interjection
See also
[edit]- go to the devil
- go die in a fire
- go jump in a lake
- go jump off a cliff
- go jump off a building
- to hell in a handbasket
References
[edit]- ^ “hell, n. & int.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.