all hell breaks loose

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all hell breaks loose (simple past all hell broke loose)

1. (idiomatic) The situation becomes chaotic or characterized by conflict or rage.
   • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

     Came not all hell broke loose?

   • 1992 August 19, “Beckel, Barnes and Rollins Discuss the Republican Convention”, in CBS Morning:

     I think it's kind of fun because, had Hillary Clinton spoken at the Democratic Convention, all hell would have broken loose.

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 2:05 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     The U.S. commanders received the news in a moment of stunned silence. Then, all hell broke loose as, off in the distance, antiaircraft fire was spotted as the antisubmarine patrol aircraft made optimistic and recklessly-brave assaults; four aircraft in total, armed with depth charges, attacked over a dozen enemy fleet units.

   • 2023 November 26, Rory Carroll, Lisa O'Carroll, “‘Remember who we are’: riots, race, and the end of the ‘Irish welcome’”, in The Observer‎, →ISSN:

     It was a shocking attack, and within hours all hell had broken loose.

• Both as a sentence and a clause this term allows all normal conjugated forms of the verb.