hell gate

See also: hellgate, Hellgate, and Hell Gate

English

Etymology

From Middle English helle gate, helle-ȝate, from Old English helleġeat, corresponding to hell +‎ gate.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛl ɡeɪt/

Noun

hell gate (uncountable)

1. The entrance to hell, seen as an embodiment of evil. [from 9th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     A Tigre forth out of the wood did rise, / That with fell clawes full of fierce gourmandize, / And greedy mouth wide gaping like hell-gate, / Did runne at Pastorell her to surprize […].

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     And now great deeds / Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, / Had not the snaky Sorceress, that sat / Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key, / Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between.

   • c. 1825, William Blake, The Everlasting Gospel:

     Thine loves the same world that mine hates; / Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.

Anagrams

• allegeth