fiend

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“
It broke with the quick movement she made to kindle it, and she snatched another as if a fiend were after her.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun An evil spirit; a demon.
  2. noun The Devil; Satan.
  3. noun A diabolically evil or wicked person.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (6)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • His mother was a curse fiend, which is a euphemism for human stock. —  Question Quest
  • The Saxon spirit o' covetize is a grewsome house-fiend, and sae's our Norse speerit o' shifts an' dodges; but the spirit o' lees is warse. —  Alton Locke, Tailor And Poet
  • If they sent him down, some other fiend might be assigned to the case, and she might not be so well off. —  Alien Plot by Piers Anthony
  • During high tea (that was financed by the writer himself) after the speeches, the spirits of my fiend was at the zenith. —  Bloggers.Pakistan
  • And the drug became alive like a fiend, and pushed me lower and lower, down, always down, until I did something dreadful, I don't know now exactly what it was, though the prison chaplain explained it to me. —  The Lowest Rung Together with The Hand on the Latch, St. Luke's Summer and The Understudy
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

demon ·  villain ·  wretch ·  brute ·  hag ·  witch ·  scoundrel ·  tyrant ·  ogre ·  ruffian ·  monster ·  goblin
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English fēond; see pē(i)- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English also feend; from Middle English feend, fend, feond, an enemy (most frequently used of Satan and other evil spirits), from Anglo-Saxon feónd, an enemy, hater, foe (often used of Satan as the Enemy or Adversary), = Old Saxon fiond, fiund, fiand = OFries. fiand, fiund = Dutch vijand = Low German fijend, fijnd = Old High German fīant, Middle High German vīant, vīent, vint, German feind, enemy, = Icelandic fjandi, enemy, the devil, = Swedish fiende = Danish fjende, enemy (but Swedish fan, Danish fand-en, fiend, devil), = Gothic (Moesogothic) fijands, an enemy; literally a hater, being orig. present participle of Anglo-Saxon feón, feógan, fiógan (present participle feógende, *feónde (later feónd, n.), preterit feóde) = Old High German fīēn = Icelandic fjā = Gothic (Moesogothic) fijan, hate (later faian, find fault), = Sanskrit √ pī, pīy, hate. Allied to foe and feud. Of similar formation is friend, literally lover.
 

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