Street voices
Hugues
·
United States
"As hell, alternatively as fuck or as shit. Added right after an adjective to emphasize the adjective. Oh man, you should have been at the show, dude. The guitarist on stage, he was cool as hell, man."
What it means
A common spoken intensifier you stick after an adjective to turn the volume all the way up. It means very, but rougher, punchier, and way more casual. You’ll hear it in American English all the time in stuff like hot as hell, funny as hell, tired as hell, or slow as hell. The mood changes with the sentence, but the job stays the same: make it hit harder.
Usage examples
"You should've seen that guitarist at the show, man. The crowd lost it the second he walked on stage. He was cool as hell."
"The hike was steep as hell, but the view from the top was worth every single aching step we took to get there."
"It's humid as hell out here, my shirt gave up five minutes ago."
"That group chat was messy as hell last night, I had to mute it and save my peace."
"That line outside the club was long as hell, so we dipped and grabbed tacos instead."
Where it comes from
It grows out of older English patterns like hot as hell and cold as hell, where hell worked as the extreme end of the scale. Those forms were already around by the 1800s, and in modern casual English it widened into a go-to spoken intensifier you can stick after loads of adjectives.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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