Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or suggestive of a fiend; diabolical.
- adjective Extremely wicked or cruel.
- adjective Extremely bad, disagreeable, or difficult.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Having the qualities of a fiend; characteristic of a fiend; demoniacal; extremely wicked, cruel, or malicious; devilish: as, a fiendish persecutor; fiendish laughter.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Like a fiend; diabolically wicked or cruel; infernal; malignant; devilish; hellish.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Sinister ;evil ;conniving ; in the manner of afiend .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective extremely evil or cruel; expressive of cruelty or befitting hell
Etymologies
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Examples
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It was a high-pitched laugh and if a sound ever deserved to be called fiendish that one did.
Crime On the Coast Carr, John Dickson 1984
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It bore an expression which might truly be called fiendish, for it gave the idea of mental power, of cruelty, of malice, of intense -- of supreme despair.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. Various
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Remembering how white soldiers from eastern cities took the skin of a native chief for a trophy of victory, and recalling the fiendish glee of Mandanes over a victim, I can only conclude that neither race may blamelessly point the finger of reproach at the other.
Lords of the North 1903
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To some of you, he'll be best known as the fiendish Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter films, but to me he is, in the words of David Bowie, chameleon, comedian, Corinthian and caricature.
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To some of you, he'll be best known as the fiendish Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter films, but to me he is, in the words of David Bowie, chameleon, comedian, Corinthian and caricature.
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If you saw my shelf full of Elvis soundboard recordings 1969 - 77 you'd know you were in good "fiendish" company.
his shrine Annie 2006
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ANTHONY: Yes, during World War I, Franklin Roosevelt and his cousin Alice took a kind of fiendish delight in taking on as volunteers some of the assignments of the tapings, and usually it was after folks that were suspected of being German spies.
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One never knew what kind of fiendish devil'try the prisoners might get up to if left too long to their own devices.
The Chronicles of Riddick Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2004
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Ryder looked after him, and her black eye glittered with a kind of fiendish beauty.
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Mrs. Bradley was grinning with a kind of fiendish blandness at Burt, whose neck was beginning to swell.
The Saltmarsh Murders Mitchell, Gladys, 1901- 1933
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