devilish

adj

1. Resembling a devil.

   “Let vs put on our meet incountering mindes, / And in deteſting ſuch a diueliſh Thiefe, / In loue of honor and defence of right / Be arm’d againſt the hate of ſuch a foe, / Whether from earth, or hell, or heauen he grow.”

   “[C]urrently incarcerated Stinc Team members Ketchy the Great, SaySoTheMac, and Bambino; the devilish and gravelly Almighty Suspect; red-clad Inglewooder and headband connoisseur FreeAckrite; baby-faced Martin Luther King Park loiterer Johnny Rose; […]”

2. Evil, wicked.

   “For I abhore to smatter / Of one so deuyllysshe a matter.”

   “[S]ome turne agayne by grace frõ their deadly hereſies into yͤ life of faith, ⁊ ſome be ſo ſore nowſeled in the falſe hereſies, ⁊ in their obſtinate frowardneſſe take ſuch a deueliſhe delight, yͭ finally thei die therin as did Baifield, Bainã, ⁊ Tewkeſbury.”

   “[…] devilish cruelty - for devilish cruelty it was, as three or four drivers armed with whips, lingered up and down the slowly-staggering file of Indians, and avenged every moment's lagging, even every stumble, by a blow of the cruel [whips].”

   “[T]he devilish destructiveness of modern conventional weapons and the need for future Saddam-busters to control their spread. (Think of the damage that a Saddam with longer-range missiles, cleverer warheads and better defences [could do][…].)”

3. Roguish or mischievous.

   “a devilish grin”

   “[S]he gave me that lovely devilish smile that said: I like liberty, and not necessarily accountability.”

4. (informal)Excessive, extreme.

   “A devilish effort yielded a devilish success.”

   “I had a devilish time moving the wardrobe downstairs.”

adv

1. (dated, informal)Devilishly; very; exceedingly.

   “It was devilish hot outside today.”

   “Only I wish it had gone the other way for it's devilish awkward for me as it happens.”