: stubbornly and often recklessly determined or intent
hell-bent on winning
hell-bent adverb

Examples of hell-bent in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has been hell-bent in pursuing its virtue-signaling decades-long experiment with global climate leadership. Tilak Doshi, Forbes, 26 Feb. 2024 But nobody's hell-bent on doing this in the Republican Party. Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 16 Feb. 2024 In a gripping race against time, Pattinson shines as a bank robber hell-bent on saving his brother, all set against the gritty backdrop of New York City and brought to life by the Safdie brothers' signature intense narrative style, aka post-cinema. Travis Bean, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024 Both Adam Clay and John Wick are retired from elite secret assassin organizations and are hell-bent on revenge. William Earl, Variety, 11 Jan. 2024 Many workers are hell-bent on leaving the office once their workday ends, and couldn’t even be convinced to attend their annual office holiday parties last month. Paige McGlauflin, Fortune, 4 Jan. 2024 Swift, who has publicly aligned herself with the pro-choice movement and declared her opposition to former President Donald Trump, has become the ire of a vocal group of conservatives hell-bent on the bizarre notion that the singer is a political weapon aimed at the upcoming presidential election. Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 7 Dec. 2023 The Trilogy tour, in all, was a dizzying, unstoppable force, a celebration of three Latin icons who are hell-bent on getting your hips moving and your throat hoarse from screaming. Alex Zaragoza, Los Angeles Times, 4 Dec. 2023 Neither the government nor the army has done anything to stop rampaging Israeli settlers who are hell-bent on driving these people—some of whom are my friends—off their lands. David Shulman, The New York Review of Books, 28 Nov. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hell-bent.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1731, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hell-bent was in 1731

Dictionary Entries Near hell-bent

Cite this Entry

“Hell-bent.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hell-bent. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hell-bent

adjective
-ˌbent
: stubbornly and often recklessly determined
hell-bent on revenge

More from Merriam-Webster on hell-bent

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