hell-raiser
Americannoun
-
hell-raisers
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hell-raiser
First recorded in 1910–15
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Fedrick could be a hell-raiser, Williams told him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
Lewis had been a hell-raiser since he was a youth, and he was no different as an adult.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2025
Shaun White, a goofy hell-raiser when America first fell for him, had been reduced to tears.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 13, 2018
Lewandowski saw him as a Braveheart-like hell-raiser tilting against a party elite that had not seen fit to embrace either of them.
From New York Times ● May 18, 2016
If all he had been was a hell-raiser, Charlie Billingsley might have been in some trouble.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
Dignitaries and celebrities welcomed it too and Windows became an it-venue for black-tie galas, weddings, fundraisers and hell-raisers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
The 63-year-old, known as the co-founder, bassist and songwriter for rock’s hell-raisers Mötley Crüe, has been happily sober for 20 years.
From Fox News ● Jan. 22, 2022
Having drifted away from the album charts in the late 1970s in favour of classical compositions, she reviewed - and found a place in her heart - for Anglo-Irish hell-raisers The Pogues,
From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2017
Frank seethes with the cumulative rage and mania of all the hell-raisers who preceded him, from the juvenile delinquent in Rebel Without a Cause to the ranting lunatic in Apocalypse Now.
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2016
Silas was one of Jimmy’s oldest friends from high school, two-thirds of a group of hell-raisers that were still legendary in Catawba County.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
