# To hell in a handbasket
**To hell in a handbasket** is an informal English idiom meaning to deteriorate rapidly and decisively, to be on a course for disaster or ruin. The noun handbasket itself is simply a basket carried in the hand, first recorded in the late 15th century, and the idiom's arrival in print is traceable to a 1682 English anti-Catholic tract, though dictionaries once dated it to the 19th or even 20th century.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Meaning | To degenerate quickly and decisively; to go to a bad state of affairs quickly[1](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/handbasket) • [2](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/to_hell_in_a_handbasket) |
| Word handbasket | First recorded 1485–95, from hand + basket[3](https://www.etymonline.com/word/hand-basket) |
| Earliest print use | Henry Care, *Weekly pacquet of advice from Rome: or, The history of popery*, 1682[4](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket) |
| Earlier relatives | "To hell in horse litter" (Peter Hausted sermon, 1636); "heaven in a wheelbarrow" (Thomas Adams, 1618)[4](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket) • [5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html) |
| Handcart variant | Relatively common in Britain[5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html) • [6](https://idiomorigins.org/origin/going-to-hell-in-a-hand-baskethandcart) |
| Rejected origin myth | Guillotine baskets; the guillotine dates to the 18th century, the phrase to the 17th[5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html) |
| Likely survival mechanism | The alliteration of "hell" and "handbasket"[7](https://wordhistories.net/2018/05/23/hell-heaven-handbasket/) |
## Meaning and usage
The idiom is informal and, in the handbasket form, chiefly [North American English](https://www.edgepedia.org/north-american-english); dictionaries gloss it as becoming completely ruined or getting rapidly worse and worse.[8](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/go%20to%20hell%20in%20a%20handbasket) • [9](https://staff.tiiame.uz/storage/users/265/books/nEahWgCuMt5clJsvTCUFV8cD07vC163sr3eN2jSQ.pdf) Cambridge lists it under deteriorating expressions, with "go to hell in a handcart" as an equal variant.[10](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/go-to-hell-in-a-handcart) Today the metaphor is one of being easily transported, as one might carry a small dog in a hand-held basket; in its original, literal sense the phrase referred to actual damnation, and "to send someone to hell in a handbasket" meant simply to send someone to hell.[4](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket) • [7](https://wordhistories.net/2018/05/23/hell-heaven-handbasket/)
## Early history of the family of phrases
The handbasket version is the end of a long line of conveyances to perdition. The earliest variant the Wordorigins etymologist David Wilton reports finding is "to hell in horse litter," in a 1636 sermon by Peter Hausted, an Anglican preacher and playwright; a 1641 sermon by Cornelius Burges offers "to hell in a fiery chariot," referring to burning a heretic at the stake, and a popular song of 1659, "Chipps of the Old Block," has a soul riding "to Hell in a Wayn" (wagon).[4](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket) An American appearance follows in December 1734, when [Benjamin Franklin](https://www.edgepedia.org/benjamin-franklin)'s Pennsylvania Gazette printed "to hell in a cradle," a reference to the rocking of a sinking ship.[4](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket) • [11](https://www.mentalfloss.com/language/going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket-phrase-origins)
The wheelbarrow route goes back furthest. The English preacher Thomas Adams wrote in *Gods Bounty on Proverbs* (1618) that a stingy oppressor "must needs go to heaven! ... But it will be, as the byword is, in a wheelbarrow: the fiends, and not the angels, will take hold on him." "Going to heaven in a wheelbarrow" was a euphemism for going to hell.[5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html) The image of sinners being wheeled to perdition appears in medieval stained glass at Fairford Church in [Gloucestershire](https://www.edgepedia.org/gloucestershire), where a woman is carried off to purgatory in a barrow pushed by a blue devil, and in [Hieronymus Bosch](https://www.edgepedia.org/hieronymus-bosch)'s *The Haywain* (circa 1515), which shows sinners loaded aboard a haycart bound for hell.[5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html)
**The handbasket variant.** Its earliest print appearance found by researchers is Henry Care's 1682 anti-Catholic tract: "the Devil fetch me to Hell in a Hand basket, if I might have my will, there should not be one Fanatical Dog left alive in the three Kingdoms."[4](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket) • [5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html) A related idiom appears as early as 1714, quoted by the Dictionary of American Regional English: "A committee brought in something about Piscataqua. Govr said he would give his head in a Handbasket as soon as he would pass it."[12](https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/worldwidewords/1999-January/000002.html)
The fixed idiom in the modern sense, however, emerges in the mid-19th century. Etymonline records "hell in a handbasket" as attested by 1867, in a context implying use from a few years before, and "going to Heaven in a handbasket" from 1853, implying easy passage to the destination.[3](https://www.etymonline.com/word/hand-basket) The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates the idiom's first recording to 1865.[13](https://cdn.oujdalibrary.com/books/229/229-the-american-heritage-dictionary-of-idioms-%28www.tawcer.com%29.pdf) Earlier still, the etymologist Pascal Tréguer found an 1841 letter by Feargus O'Connor (1794–1855), the Irish Chartist leader, in The Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser: "do what you will, you are all to go to hell in a hand-basket."[7](https://wordhistories.net/2018/05/23/hell-heaven-handbasket/) The OED's own earliest quote, from Isaiah Winslow Ayer's *The Great North-Western Conspiracy in All Its Startling Details* (Chicago, 1865), reports Judge Buckner S. Morris of Chicago saying that freed prisoners of Camp Douglas would "send abolitionists to hell in a hand basket"; a witness at the 1865 conspiracy trial gave similar testimony.[7](https://wordhistories.net/2018/05/23/hell-heaven-handbasket/)
## Origin theories and rejected explanations
No documented reason exists for choosing a handbasket. The most widely held view among etymologists is that "handbasket" was chosen because it alliterates with "hell," not for any rational reason; other alliterative variants, such as "hell in a hack" (a taxicab) and "in a hanging basket," appear alongside non-alliterating ones like "in a wheelbarrow," "in a bucket," and "on a poker."[7](https://wordhistories.net/2018/05/23/hell-heaven-handbasket/) • [14](https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2879.html) Christine Ammer, author of the cliche dictionary *Have A Nice Day — No Problem*, similarly attributes the variant's popularity to the alliteration and suggests handbaskets being "light and easily conveyed" implies going to hell easily and rapidly.[14](https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2879.html)
A popular myth derives the phrase from the wicker baskets that caught decapitated heads under the guillotine in Revolutionary France. The dating refutes it: the guillotine was not invented until 1792, while versions of the expression were in use in the 1600s at least.[5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html) • [11](https://www.mentalfloss.com/language/going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket-phrase-origins) Other folk explanations, including John Ciardi's suggestion of mining carts that carried men down into dangerous mines, lack corroboration; dictionaries define a handbasket simply as a woven container carried in the hand.[15](https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/39/messages/400.html)
## National origin and dictionary history
The phrase is often labeled an Americanism. This is inaccurate in origin: the earliest versions are British, dating to the early seventeenth century, although the phrase is today fairly common in Britain and now used mostly in the United States.[4](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket) • [5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html) The Oxford English Dictionary's third edition (2008) states that "hell in a handbasket" is of American-English origin because the earliest instances its editors found were in books by American authors, a conclusion Tréguer calls erroneous given the 1682 and 1841 British citations.[7](https://wordhistories.net/2018/05/23/hell-heaven-handbasket/)
For much of the 20th century the idiom's age was unknown. Eric Partridge's *Dictionary of Catch Phrases* dated it to the early 1920s, and William and Mary Morris's *Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins* called it one of the most perplexing problems they had encountered.[14](https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2879.html) • [12](https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/worldwidewords/1999-January/000002.html) The digitization of historical newspapers and books pushed the record back repeatedly: World Wide Words, updating its answer after that digitization, concluded the phrase "dates from at least half a century earlier" than the early 20th century, with the 1864 Morris speech as its first known instance.[16](https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-goi1.html) Regional preference differs within English: the handcart form is relatively common in Britain while the handbasket form is preferred in America.[6](https://idiomorigins.org/origin/going-to-hell-in-a-hand-baskethandcart)
## Variants
The conveyance is interchangeable in principle. Recorded forms include "to hell in a handcart," "in a basket," "in a bucket" (a southern U.S. variation), "in a hack," "on a poker," "on a handcar," "on a shutter," "in a wheelbarrow," "on a toboggan," and even "schooner-rigged."[14](https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2879.html) • [17](https://www.gcetece.org/_files/ugd/374af4_030f217df3aa4c6593efd8a7d7f8c499.pdf) The heaven-side versions carry the opposite meaning: according to the Dictionary of American Regional English, "to go to heaven in a handbasket" was popular in the upper Midwest in the 1910s, meaning to have it made or to have an easy task.[18](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1995/jul/20/straight-hell-handbasket-heaven-handbasket/?amp=&page=all) Earlier phrases such as "hell in a basket" and "hell in a wheelbarrow," lacking the catchiness of the alliterative pair, have since dropped out of common use.[5](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html)
## References
1. [handbasket, Dictionary.com](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/handbasket)
2. [to hell in a handbasket, Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/to_hell_in_a_handbasket)
3. [hand-basket, Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/word/hand-basket)
4. [hell in a handbasket, Wordorigins.org (David Wilton, 2020)](https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/hell-in-a-handbasket)
5. [Going to hell in a handbasket, The Phrase Finder (Gary Martin)](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/hell-in-a-handbasket.html)
6. [Going to hell in a hand basket/handcart, Idiom Origins](https://idiomorigins.org/origin/going-to-hell-in-a-hand-baskethandcart)
7. [To go to hell – or to heaven – in a handbasket, Wordhistories.net (Pascal Tréguer, 2018)](https://wordhistories.net/2018/05/23/hell-heaven-handbasket/)
8. [Go to hell in a handbasket, Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/go%20to%20hell%20in%20a%20handbasket)
9. [McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs](https://staff.tiiame.uz/storage/users/265/books/nEahWgCuMt5clJsvTCUFV8cD07vC163sr3eN2jSQ.pdf)
10. [Go to hell in a handcart, Cambridge Dictionary](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/go-to-hell-in-a-handcart)
11. [Where Does the Phrase 'Going to Hell in a Handbasket' Come From? Mental Floss (Paul Anthony Jones, 2025)](https://www.mentalfloss.com/language/going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket-phrase-origins)
12. [World Wide Words mailing list, 16 January 1999](https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/worldwidewords/1999-January/000002.html)
13. [The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition](https://cdn.oujdalibrary.com/books/229/229-the-american-heritage-dictionary-of-idioms-%28www.tawcer.com%29.pdf)
14. [Going to hell in a handbasket, Phrase Finder discussion (Random House/Mavens' Word of the Day, 1999)](https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/1/messages/2879.html)
15. [Hell in a handbasket, Phrase Finder discussion, 2005](https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/39/messages/400.html)
16. [Going to Hell in a Handbasket: Origin and Meaning, World Wide Words](https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-goi1.html)
17. [Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (excerpt)](https://www.gcetece.org/_files/ugd/374af4_030f217df3aa4c6593efd8a7d7f8c499.pdf)
18. [Straight Dope: 'Hell in a handbasket' came from 'Heaven in a handbasket', San Diego Reader (1995)](https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/1995/jul/20/straight-hell-handbasket-heaven-handbasket/?amp=&page=all)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Languages and linguistics › Linguistics › Language change, history, and social variation › Etymology and word origins*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license