Hell has no fury like a (certain type of person) scorned
No one will have a greater wrath or vengeance than (this type of person) when they have been wronged. A hyperbolic and often humorous play on the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," in which any person, demographic, or profession may be substituted for "woman." The university might think nothing of hiking up the cost of tuition, but we'll show them that Hell has no fury like a broke college student scorned! The governor, after veering away from his party's core ideologies, is now discovering that Hell has no fury like politicians scorned. You took away Allie's favorite toy? Yeah, no wonder she's screaming—Hell has no fury like a toddler scorned!
hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
proverb No one will have a greater wrath or vengeance than a woman when she has been wronged. Most men find out the hard way that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Why would you cheat on your girlfriend? Don't you know that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? That deceitful jerk is going to learn the hard way that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
hell has no fury like a woman scorned
No anger is worse than that of a jilted woman. For example, Nancy has nothing good to say about Tom-hell has no fury, you know. This term is a shortening of William Congreve's lines, "Heav'n has no rage, like love to hatred turn'd, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn'd" ( The Mourning Bride, 1697). Similar lines appear in several plays of the same period. Today the proverb is often shortened even more, as in the example.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
hell hath no ˈfury (like a woman ˈscorned)
(British English, saying) used to refer to somebody, usually a woman, who has reacted very angrily to something, especially the fact that her husband or lover has been unfaithful (= has had a sexual relationship with another woman): He should have known better than to leave her for that young girl. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Hath is an old form of has.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
hell has no fury like a woman scorned
Beware the anger of a woman rejected in love. The term is an adaptation of the closing lines from William Congreve’s play The Mourning Bride (1697): “Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d, nor Hell a fury like a woman scorn’d.” Neither the idea nor the expression was original. At least three seventeenth-century plays had similar lines, including Colley Cibber’s “No fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman—scorned, slighted” (Love’s Last Shift, 1696), and the idea had been expressed by the Roman writers Propertius and Juvenal, by Chaucer, and by numerous others.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer