Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Distasteful and repellant: hellacious smog.
- adj. Slang Extraordinary; remarkable: a hellacious catch of fish.
Wiktionary
- adj. nasty, repellent
- adj. remarkable, unbelievable, unusual
Etymologies
- hell + -acious (as in audacious).
Examples
“He takes us back to his youth in "hellacious" Brownsville, Brooklyn of the 1970s, telling us that before he became a street thug, he was the target of neighborhood bullies because he lacked the confidence to stand up for himself.”
“Nicole Belle, from who I borrowed the long quote above, asks: "What kind of hellacious Kool-aid are they serving down at the Weekly Standard?”
“Miller was his usual forthright self, saying Tiger Woods was "hellacious" Sunday.”
“Besides modeling, she said she'd been writing her autobiography and spending time on her 300-acre Rattlesnake Ranch in the Southwest, where she drives a "hellacious" truck and an "even meaner" Jeep, rides motorcycles and hot-tubs naked.”
“Francis's flexibility extends to special teams, where Etcheverry noted he's "hellacious" in kick coverage.”
“New York state Senate a "hellacious" place, the president of a statewide group warned local hospital leaders they're in for a bumpy ride.”
“To them, Iraq was some kind of hellacious mess for a while, so pulling our troops was not such a crazy idea.”
“Although he was deemed a failure as a starter, at his worst Mr. Chamberlain posted numbers better than that, and did it pitching in the hellacious AL East.”
The Wall Street Journal: Soriano Signing Raises Questions About Joba
“The first week of Jerry Brown's governorship told us a lot, and set the stage for the second week, in which a hellacious state budget proposal is dominating.”
The Huffington Post: William Bradley: The Jerry Brown Era Unfolds (Again)
“The real hellacious fight, says Mouw, a friend of Bell, a Fuller graduate, is between generous orthodoxy and stingy orthodoxy.”
USA Today: 'Love Wins': Pastor book kindles firestorm over hell
Lists
‘hellacious’ hasn't been added to any lists yet.
chained_bear not quite the same as hellish. Oct 18, 2007
drumr4evr very powerful; extremely difficult Sep 12, 2007