Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of, resembling, or characteristic of a devil, as:
- adj. Malicious; evil.
- adj. Mischievous, teasing, or annoying.
- adj. Excessive; extreme: devilish heat.
- adv. Extremely; very.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Characteristic of the devil; befitting the devil, or a devil or demon; diabolical; malignant: as, a devilish scheme; devilish conduct.
- Extreme; enormous.
- Synonyms Satanic, infernal, hellish, impious, wicked, atrocious, nefarious.
- Excessively; enormously.
Wiktionary
- adj. Resembling a devil.
- adj. Characteristic of a devil.
- adj. informal Extreme, excessive.
- adv. informal Devilishly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Resembling, characteristic of, or pertaining to, the devil; diabolical; wicked in the extreme.
- adj. colloq. Extreme; excessive.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. in a playfully devilish manner
- adj. showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil
- adj. playful in an appealingly bold way
Etymologies
- devil + -ish (Wiktionary)
Examples
“You may be in devilish fine form to-day, but your throat is rotten.”
“Sometimes an otherwise calm and serene person gathers a look that can best be described as devilish.”
“A divine love which had in it no necessity of hating evil would be profoundly immoral, and would be called devilish more fitly than divine.”
“This may be called a devilish zeal; for as there is the faith of devils, so there is the zeal of devils: "Therefore his rage is great, because he knows his time is short.”
The Almost Christian Discovered; or, the False Professor Tried and Cast.
“The one are fellows called devilish good -- the other, fellows called devilish gentleman like.”
“(no surprise there) and expands the idea of devilish technique to new frontiers.”
“Georgina was back to being devilish which is how she ALWAYS should be.”
'Gossip Girl' recap: Rufus and Lily tie the knot...and gain a son | EW.com
“The word "devilish" actually occurred several times in the text, in between technical terms and columns of figures.”
“Last weekend, Jackson accused Tommy Mottola, head of Sony Music (Jackson's record company) of being "devilish" and a "racist" and even held up a sign outside Sony headquarters depicting Mottola with devil's horns.”
“It's interesting, therefore, that delion picked a "devilish" theme for RR this week, as it was also the theme of my June 1, 2008 coverage of the U.S. Women's Chess Championship at Chessville.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘devilish’.
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Words For Novel (Part 3)
fibers, gypsy, polymer, schism, syphilitic garden..., holocaust, scrutinant, contemplate, aftermath, consequence, deadlock, impasse and 150 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
gonk, nerking, guap, gimp, fabulous, dabble, fabilicious, tragic, zooted, hey, cheekini, nugget and 457 more... -
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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kant's Words
mandrágora, doppelganger, sinestesia, baladí, adriático, chanson, correveidile, angster, dèja vu, otredad, grasshopper, republic and 1074 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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favorite words
ennui, bonhomie, eschew, liaison, serendipity, lovely, dusk, kitten, epitome, sexy, beloved, darling and 396 more...
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SAT
abandon,extreme e..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o..., abject,utterly ho... and 2228 more...
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SAT
abandon,extreme e..., dispensing of all..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o... and 2229 more...
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d is for depressing!
dolorous, damaging, depressing, drab, dull, dumb, derelict, decaying, dubious, doubtful, dreadful, dangerous and 86 more...
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SAT
abandon,extreme e..., dispensing of all..., abash,to humiliate, abate,to lessen, abbreviate,to sho..., abridge, abdicate,to forma..., aberration,depart..., abnormality, abet,to encourage, abhor,to hate, abide,to follow o... and 2229 more...
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The Three Musketeers
Favorite words from Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers
sobriquet, tofa, baldric, alabaster, hostelry, incorrigible, assailant, poltroon, cudgel, bedizened, apogee, augury and 19 more...
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Words that sound like what they mean
"sarcastic" sounds sarcastic. "grisly" sounds grisly. They would make the cut. "dearth" doesn't really sound like a lack of something, so it wouldn't.
sarcastic, grisly, gloomy, cudgel, awkward, effervescent, phlegm, esoteric, greasy, devilish, naughty, maximize and 6 more...
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billifer's Words
phallocracy, quarto, libidinous, antihero, droog, sesquipedalian, frottage, quixotic, persnickety, agog, proclivity, logorrhea and 59 more...
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descriptors - adjectives
lanky, propitious, courtly, resplendent, devious, errant, deserted, devilish, dilapidated, diabolical, cold, obfuscation and 81 more...
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moritherapy's Words
flummoxed, struwwelpeter, fandango, anvil, bubbalicious, calamitous, devilish, enervating, frumpy, gallivanting, hurumph, insipid and 12 more...
Tweets
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