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.

Prov. There is nothing as unpleasant as a woman who has been offended or whose love has not been returned. When Mary Ann discovered that George was not in love with her, George discovered that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Bill: I'm getting tired of going out with Mary; I think I'll tell her we're through. Fred: Be careful. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, you know.

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.

People say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned to suggest that women often react very angrily to things that upset them. Benjamin's attention shifts from Mrs Robinson to her daughter Elaine and hell hath no fury like an older woman scorned. Note: Journalists often use other words in this expression to make it appropriate to the subject which they are writing about. The golfer, having decided not to attend next week's International Open competition, has discovered that hell hath no fury like a sponsor spurned. Note: This expression is often used to refer to cases where a woman has an unfaithful partner and takes revenge. Note: This comes from William Congreve's `The Mourning Bride' (1697): `Heav'n has no rage, like love to hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn'd.'

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.