archfiend

noun

1. A chief fiend (devil, demon or monster).

   “Of those [spirits] who rebelled some became devils, fiends or archfiends, according to the manifold proportions of their transgression.”

   “[…] he thought for a minute with a freezing detached almost amused calm of the dreadful night inevitably awaiting him whether he drank much more or not, his room shaking with daemonic orchestras […] the vicious shouting, the strumming, the slamming, the pounding, the battling with insolent archfiends, the avalanche breaking down the door, the proddings from under the bed, and always, outside, the cries, the wailing, the terrible music, the dark’s spinets:”

   “Seven chief demons, seven archfiends, aid Ahriman in his struggle against the forces of light.”

2. (capitalized, often)Satan.

   “So stretcht out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay Chain’d on the burning Lake,”

   “In disobedience to his God, Did man himself call down the rod? Or did th’ arch-fiend, from Heav’n that fell, Inspire the mischief to rebel?”

   “All, save I, were at rest or in enjoyment; I, like the arch fiend, bore a hell within me, and finding myself unsympathised with, wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.”

   “And then the subject became Religion, which was the Arch-fiend’s deadliest weapon. Government oppressed the body of the wage-slave, but Religion oppressed his mind […]”

   “These, it was believed, would prevent the Arch-fiend from entering the charmed ring and wreaking vengeance upon the sorcerers.”

3. A diabolically evil person.

   “1690, anonymous translator, The Royal Wanton (attributed to Gregorio Leti), London: F.B., Part 5, p. 48, […] her Arch-fiend and Devil of a Lord, had impudently sent the same Villain to abuse her once again.”

   “So this is a plot to shield this arch-fiend, and I have detected it. A word from me, and three heads besides his would roll from their shoulders!”

   “Possibly Beauty Smith, arch-fiend and tormentor, was capable of breaking White Fang’s spirit, but as yet there were not signs of his succeeding.”

   “[…] in every hamlet of the United States where motion pictures were shown, bug-eyed filmgoers stared in horror at the celluloid villanies of the Huns, led by that archfiend Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Beast of Berlin.”