verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To harass or cause trouble for; to plague.

   "Guerrilla attacks continued to bedevil the larger army's supply routes."

2. 2
   be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly wordnet
3. 3
   To perplex or bewilder.
4. 4
   treat cruelly wordnet
5. 5
   To possess (someone's mind).

Synonyms

All synonyms

befuddlebewitchconfoundconfusediscombobulatefrustrate

Antonyms

All antonyms

please

Example

More examples

"Inflation continues to bedevil the global economy."

Etymology

From be- + devil.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.