ˈhell-hound
[Orig. two words, helle in genitive case.]
1. Hound or dog of hell; esp. in Greek and Latin mythology, Cerberus, the watch-dog of Hades.
| c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. xxxv. §6 Þa sceolde cuman þære helle hund, þæs nama..wæs Ceruerus. 1006 Charter in Cod. Dipl. III. 350 Sy he toren of hellehundes toðum on ðam eᵹeslicum hellewitum. 1340–70 Alex. & Dind. 792 Ȝe ben to þe helle-hond holliche i-like, Tri-cerberus þe tenful of wham i tolde haue. c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 167 Þe helle-huntere, wyth his helle-houndys, com ny. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 630 My Hell-hounds to lick up the draff and filth Which man's polluting Sin with taint hath shed On what was pure. 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 408 But hark, the hell-hounds clamour. |
2. A fiend; a fiendish person: as a term of execration.
| c 1420 Metr. Life St. Kath. (Halliw.) 10 Thou false cursyd Sarasyn..Helle hounde, thou fowle wyghte. a 1529 Skelton P. Sparrowe 89 From that hell hounde, That lyeth in cheynes bounde. 1532 More Confut. Tindale Wks. 446/1 Neither Luther, Tyndal, nor Huskin, nor all y⊇ hel houndes that y⊇ deuyl hath in hys kenell. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. i. ii. (1810) 39 Tyrone with his Hell-hounds being not farre from Corke. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 533 ¶2, I am sure these shameless hell-hounds deserved it highly. 1777 Earl of Chatham Sp. in Ho. Lords 18 Nov., These horrible hell-hounds of savage war. 1879 Browning Ivan Ivanovitch 208 Hellhounds, we baulk you! |
3. attrib. and Comb.
| 1719 De Foe Crusoe ii. ix, Villains! hell-hound dogs! 1790 By-stander 46 Of the hell-hound breed. 1811 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XXXII. 117 To account and apologise for the hell-hound-hearted mangling fury. |