brimstone

[ brim-stohn ]

noun
  1. a virago; shrew.

Origin of brimstone

1
before 1150; Middle English brinston, etc., late Old English brynstān.See burn1, stone

Other words from brimstone

  • brimstony, adjective

Words Nearby brimstone

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use brimstone in a sentence

  • They used to declare that every unbaptised baby would go to Hell and burn for ever in fire and brimstone.

    God and my Neighbour | Robert Blatchford
  • Ain't got used to brimstone yet, but I'd trade mosquitoes for sulphur smoke and give some boot.

    Cabin Fever | B. M. Bower
  • Let equal portions of salt and slaked lime be in one; salt and wood ashes in another; and salt and brimstone in a third.

    Domestic Animals | Richard L. Allen
  • Heave ahead, my lads,” cried the slave captain; “and below there, get those brimstone-pans going at once.

    Mass' George | George Manville Fenn
  • Those devils there emptying cargoes of lost souls into the brimstone pits,—surely they could not be men!

    Mountain | Clement Wood

British Dictionary definitions for brimstone

brimstone

/ (ˈbrɪmˌstəʊn) /


noun
  1. an obsolete name for sulphur

  2. a common yellow butterfly, Gonepteryx rhamni, of N temperate regions of the Old World: family Pieridae

  1. archaic a scolding nagging woman; virago

Origin of brimstone

1
Old English brynstān; related to Old Norse brennistein; see burn 1, stone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012