HELL ON WHEELS Definition & Meaning

hell on wheels

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Idioms and Phrases

Tough, aggressive, wild, or mean, as in Watch out for the boss—he's hell on wheels this week . This expression originated with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1860s, when it denoted the last town on the line, which was carried on freight cars as the track was extended. The town consisted mainly of tents occupied by construction gangs, liquor dealers, gamblers, and other camp followers known for their rough and often vicious ways.

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His first Emmy nod was for AMC’s “Hell on Wheels” in 2012, a year before the release of the first “Last of Us” video game.

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“Our older son was absolute hell on wheels as a baby. He wouldn’t sleep. He was terrified of everything. He screamed all the time. And we just thought, ‘This is just going to end in disaster,’ because he was such a dysregulated little boy,” Waldinger says.

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“It’s been hell on wheels,” said David Chambers, chair of political science.

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I'm pretty sure that's Southern-speak for "they were hell on wheels."

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In 2016, Collins and the folk-pop musician Ari Hest were nominated for a Grammy for their album “Silver Skies Blue,” and Hest joins her here for “Hell on Wheels,” a rowdy rock track about a nearly tragic joy ride taken by an inebriated teenage Collins.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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hell on wheels

Idioms and Phrases

Example Sentences