Devil-ridden

adj

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Plagued or dominated by the devil or devils.

    "To VVrangle the Devil, out of the Country, vvill be truly a Nevv Experiment! Alas, vve are not Avvare of the Devil, if vve do not think, that he aims at Enflaming us one againſt another; & ſhall vve ſuffer our ſelves to be Devil-Ridden? or, by any Vnadviſableneſs, contribute unto the VVidening of our Breaches?"

  2. 2
    Possessed by a devil or devils.

    "[…] he plunges into the struggles of the multitude below, and frees the devil-ridden boy from the demon that possessed him."

  3. 3
    Suffering from mental anguish. figuratively

    "1878, William Morris, letter cited in John William Mackail, The Life of William Morris, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899, Volume I, Chapter 11, p. 370, I am still plaguy lame, a very limpet, but not so devil-ridden as I was. I think that came of that infernal furnace-heat we were in, the last few days of Italy […]"

  4. 4
    Wild, crazed. figuratively

    "[…] Grandmaster Werner […] had lain down in Marienburg one afternoon of this year 1330, to take his siesta, and was dreaming peaceably after a moderate repast, when a certain devil-ridden mortal, Johann von Endorf, one of his Ritters, long grumbling about severity, want of promotion and the like, rushed in upon the good old man; ran him through, dead for a ducat […]"

Etymology

From devil + ridden.

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