pave the road to hell
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To have good intentions but produce bad results
Literally: to lay pavement on a path to a bad place
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
His attempts to help only paved the road to hell
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “pave the road to hell” mean?
To have good intentions but produce bad results Literally: to lay pavement on a path to a bad place
Is “pave the road to hell” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.