Helled

/hɛld/ verb

Definition

Past tense of 'hell'; treated or placed in a printing hellbox; made infernal or chaotic.

Etymology

Past tense and past participle of 'hell' as a verb. In printing, 'to hell' meant to discard broken type into the hellbox; in general use, it meant to condemn or curse.

Kelly Says

The verb 'to hell' something in printing created a whole vocabulary of job-specific language that actual printers used daily—craft workers invented colorful technical terms that rarely appear in formal writing!

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