hell gate

The entrance to hell, seen as an embodiment of evil.

Noun

  1. The entrance to hell, seen as an embodiment of evil.
    • A Tigre forth out of the wood did rise, / That with fell clawes full of fierce gourmandize, / And greedy mouth wide gaping like hell-gate, / Did runne at Pastorell her to surprize […]. - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI,...
    • And now great deeds / Had been achieved, whereof all Hell had rung, / Had not the snaky Sorceress, that sat / Fast by Hell-gate and kept the fatal key, / Risen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. - 1667, John...
    • Thine loves the same world that mine hates; / Thy heaven doors are my hell gates. - c. 1825, William Blake, The Everlasting Gospel:

Origin

From Middle English helle gate, helle-ȝate, from Old English helleġeat, corresponding to hell + gate.