I find it a very curious thing that the phrase "hell of a" seems to be suitable to describe both good and bad things.
e.g.
It was a great party. We had a hell of a time.
vs
We sold the house eventually. But we had a hell of a time.
I certainly hear it more commonly used as in the first instance, but I imagine that this is a regional thing. But I wonder which sense came first. What is the etymology of the phrase?
And, with this in mind, how should I interpret a sentence with very little context?
e.g.
We had a hell of a time when we visited my parents over Christmas.
Best Answer
The phrase "a hell of a time" contains two idioms. "A hell of" and "a time".
As other answers have said "a hell of" just emphasises the strength of something.
... and so on.
"A time" often refers to a period that was interesting in some unspecified way, especially when preceded with a strengthening adjective.
Put them together, and you have:
There is nothing in the sentence to say whether they had a hell of a good time, a hell of an exciting time, a hell of a bad time, a hell of a dreary time. All of that is to be inferred from context.
And perhaps the speaker doesn't want you to know the truth.
Related: if you say "I had a hellish time", that's always bad.