Meaning of hell to pay | Babel Free

Definitions

Very unpleasant consequences; a great deal of trouble.

idiomatic, uncountable

Examples

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

“"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."”

“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.”

CEFR level