Devilish
adj, adv, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 Resembling a devil.
"Let vs put on our meet incountering mindes, / And in deteſting ſuch a diueliſh Thiefe, / In loue of honor and defence of right / Be arm’d againſt the hate of ſuch a foe, / Whether from earth, or hell, or heauen he grow."
- 2 Wicked, evil.
"[S]ome turne agayne by grace frõ their deadly hereſies into yͤ life of faith, ⁊ ſome be ſo ſore nowſeled in the falſe hereſies, ⁊ in their obſtinate frowardneſſe take ſuch a deueliſhe delight, yͭ finally thei die therin as did Baifield, Bainã, ⁊ Tewkeſbury."
- 3 Roguish or mischievous.
"a devilish grin"
- 4 Extreme, excessive. informal
"A devilish effort yielded a devilish success."
- 1 showing the cunning or ingenuity or wickedness typical of a devil wordnet
- 2 playful in an appealingly bold way wordnet
- 1 Devilishly; very; exceedingly. dated, informal
"It was devilish hot outside today."
- 1 in a playfully devilish manner wordnet
Example
More examples"That magazine article exposed his devilish acts to the full light of day."
Etymology
From Middle English develissh, develyssh, equivalent to devil + -ish. Cognate with Saterland Frisian düvelsk, düüwelsk (“devilish”), West Frisian duvelsk (“devilish”), Dutch duivels (“devilish”), German Low German düvelsk (“devilish”), German teuflisch (“devilish”), Danish djævelsk (“devilish”), Swedish djävulsk (“devilish”), Norwegian djevelsk (“devilish”).
More for "devilish"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.