hell to pay

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

hell to pay (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) Very unpleasant consequences; a great deal of trouble.
   • 1912, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “The Miracle”, in Love Stories:

     "When I'm hungry, there's hell to pay if I'm not fed quick."

   • 1921, Zane Grey, chapter 3, in To The Last Man:

     "I told him I had sent for you an' when you got heah these slippery, mysterious thieves, whoever they were, would shore have hell to pay."

   • 2009 November 16, Amy Sullivan, “Can Dems Resolve Their Abortion Split?”, in Time, retrieved 28 August 2013:

     Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan . . . vows that "there will be hell to pay" if his language gets stripped out of, or weakened in, the final legislation.

Synonyms

• the devil to pay
• the devil to pay, and no pitch hot

References

• “hell to pay”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.