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brimstone

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brimstone

  • /ˈbɹɪmstəʊn/ UK
  • /ˈbɹɪmstoʊn/ US
  • /ˈbɹɪmstən/ obsolete

Where it comes from

From Middle English brymston, brimston, bremston, forms of brinston, brenston, bernston, from Old English brynstān (“brimstone”, literally “burn-stone”), equivalent to burn + stone. Cognate with Scots brunstane (“brimstone”), Icelandic brennisteinn (“sulfur / sulphur, brimstone”), German Bernstein (“amber”). Compare also brimfire. More at burn, stone. Although once a synonym for sulfur, the word is now largely restricted to poetic and Biblical usage.

noun brimstones

  1. countable, uncountable The sulfur of hell; hell, damnation. For griefe thereof, and diuelish despight, / From his infernall fournace forth he threw / Huge flames, that dimmed all the heauens light, / Enrold in duskish smoke and brimstone blew.
  2. archaic, countable, uncountable Sulfur. Weel I wot I wad be broken if I were to gie sic weight to the folk that come to buy our pepper and brimstone, and suchlike sweetmeats.
  3. countable, obsolete, uncountable A whore. I went to the park, picked up a low Brimstone, called myself a Barber, & agreed with her for Sixpence, went to the bottom of the park, arm in arm, & dipped my machine in the Canal […].
  4. archaic, countable, uncountable Used attributively as an intensifier in exclamations. You are a brimstone pig. You're a head of swine!
  5. countable, uncountable The butterfly Gonepteryx rhamni of the Pieridae family. A brimstone butterfly flirted among the purple shadows under the palms.
  6. Internet, countable, uncountable Online content of exceptionally poor quality, lower than coal.

    Opposite: gemerald

Translations

Every language

noun the sulfur of Hell

DeutschHöllenschwefel
Italianocedronella, zolfo
Românăpucioasă
Русскийжу́пел žúpel

noun intensifier in exclamations

Русскийпрокля́тый prokljátyj, чёртов čórtov, зловре́дный zlovrédnyj

noun butterfly species

한국어멧노랑나비 mennorangnabi
Françaiscitron
DeutschZitronenfalter
Italianocedronella
Русскийлимо́нница limónnica, круши́нница krušínnica
עבריתלִימוֹנִית limonít

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Cite this
MLA

"brimstone." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/brimstone. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

brimstone. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/brimstone

Chicago

"brimstone." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/brimstone.

BibTeX
@misc{brimstone_2026,
  title = {brimstone},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/brimstone},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}