make someone's life hell
Meaning: To make someone very unhappy for a long time.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The new manager made everyone's life hell with pointless meetings.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Hell as the image of endless suffering. The phrase is common from the 20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Polish: nie dać żyć — literally: to not give life
More idioms — Daily Life
- sweep something under the rug — To hide a problem instead of dealing with it.
- play for time — To delay deliberately in the hope of improving one's position.
- even Homer nods — Even the most skilled people sometimes make mistakes.
- borrow trouble — To worry about problems that may never happen.
- act like one owns the place — To behave with arrogant disregard for others.
- once in a lifetime — So rare that it will probably happen only once.
More English idioms
- push up daisies — To be dead and buried.
- lose one's head — To stop thinking clearly because of panic, anger or passion.
- manna from heaven — Something good that arrives unexpectedly just when it is needed.
- lose face — To lose respect or be humiliated in public.
- shoulder the burden — To take on a heavy responsibility.
- gild the lily — To spoil something already perfect by adding to it.
From our tongue twisters
- Pad kid poured curd pulled cod. — Alternating repetition — the consonants swap at the start of every other word, which is w…
- Red lorry, yellow lorry. — The 'l/r' alternation drill — deceptively short, yet almost impossible to say fast withou…
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.