Sam Hill

English

Alternative forms

• Sam Hell

Etymology

No suitable person is known to be the original for this. Probably intended as a substitute for hell or, more fully, for "damned hell".

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

Sam Hill

1. (slang) An intensifier.

   What the Sam Hill do you think you're doing?

   Who the Sam Hill does he think he is?

   Where in Sam Hill is that dog off to?

   • 1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 3, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa., New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:

     Walter poured syrup on his vegetables and meat with a generous hand. He probably would have poured it into his milk glass had I not asked what the sam hill he was doing.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:the dickens

Anagrams

• Hamills, millahs