devil

name

1. The chief devil; Satan.
2. The chief devil; Satan.

noun

1. An evil creature, the objectification of a hostile and destructive force.
2. A man with red or orange skin and a pair of horns on his head, a pointed goatee, and a long tail, who carries a pitchfork, represents evil, and is portrayed to children as a boogeyman who punishes bad behavior.
3. The bad part of the conscience; the opposite to the angel.

   “The devil in me wants to let him suffer.”

4. A wicked or naughty person, or one who harbors reckless, spirited energy, especially in a mischievous way; usually said of a young child.

   “Those two kids are devils in a toy store.”

5. A thing that is awkward or difficult to understand or do.

   “That math problem was a devil.”

6. (euphemistic)Hell.

   “What in the devil is that?”

   “What the devil is that?”

   “She is having a devil of a time fixing it.”

   “You can go to the devil for all I care.”

7. A person, especially a man; used to express a particular opinion of him, usually in the phrases poor devil and lucky devil.

   “'Well, I'm damned,' said Bond. 'Of course that old devil M never told me. He just gives one the facts. Never tells one any good news. I suppose he thinks it might influence one's decision to take a case or not.'”

8. A printer's assistant.

   “For he will not leave his listener to dwell upon sorrow when the print office beckons and he can show you what a good little devil he became.”

9. (India)A poltergeist that haunts printing works.
10. A dust devil.

    “The formation of tornados and water-spouts is very probably identical with that of dust-storms and "devils," viz., a sudden disturbance of the vertical equilibrium of the atmosphere, where by an upward rush of air is generated, which rapidly becomes spiral.”

    “There are few sights more appalling than a sandstorm in the desert, the "Zauba'ah" as the Arabs call it. Devils, or pillars of sand, vertical and inclined, measuring a thousand feet high[.]”

11. (dialectal, in-compounds)A barren, unproductive and unused area.

    “devil strip”

12. A dish, as a bone with the meat, broiled and excessively peppered; a grill with Cayenne pepper.

    “Men and women busy in baking, broiling, roasting oysters, and preparing devils on the gridiron.”

13. A machine for tearing or cutting rags, cotton, etc., as used in the production of mungo or shoddy.

    “The woollen things are torn to pieces by a machine having spiked rollers (termed a devil), cleansed, and the fibre spun with a certain proportion of new wool, the yarn being afterwards woven into the full-bodied but flimsy fabric termed shoddy.”

14. A Tasmanian devil.

    “He removes his food, water, and torch from the pack and then pushes it to the far end of the tent – no devil is going to rip his pack apart tonight.”

    “In the 1800s, for example, workers at a wool company were scared that the devils would attack their sheep.”

15. (slang)An endurance event where riders who fall behind are periodically eliminated.
16. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis)Ellipsis of devil seam (“the seam between garboard strake and the keel, on wooden boats”).

verb

1. To make like a devil; to invest with the character of a devil.
2. To annoy or bother.
3. (intransitive)To work as a ‘devil’; to work for a lawyer or writer without fee or recognition.

   “He did not repeat the scathing estimate of her character by Quatrefages, who at that time spent one afternoon a week devilling at the Consulate, keeping the petty-cash box in order.”

4. To ghostwrite; to author while working as a ‘devil’.

   “Didn't secretaries write the speeches of Parliamentary "big-bugs"? Weren't the opinions of eminent lawyers often written by their juniors, read over and signed? Weren't briefs and pleadings devilled?”

5. To prepare (food) with spices, making it spicy

   “[…]; you could watch a buckwheat pancake whirled into existence under your eyes and see fowls' legs devilled, peppered, grilled, and tormented till they lost all semblance of the original Mariposa chicken.”

6. To prepare (food) with spices, making it spicy:
7. To prepare (food) with spices, making it spicy:

   “She's going to devil four dozen eggs for the picnic.”

8. To shred fabric into its fibres for recycling, as in the production of mungo or shoddy.

   “Tailors' clippings and remnants of fine woollen goods, such as broadcloth, etc., are devilled and spun into yarn for making cloth of nicer quality, called mungo.”