devilish
/ˈdɛvəlɪʃ/
devilish adjective: resembling a devil.
Adjective
devilish (comparative more devilish, superlative most devilish)
- 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.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
- [C]urrently incarcerated Stinc Team members Ketchy the Great, SaySoTheMac, and Bambino; the devilish and gravelly Almighty Suspect; red-clad Inglewooder and headband connoisseur FreeAckrite; baby-faced Martin Luther King Park loiterer Johnny Rose; […]2019 February 5, Torii MacAdams, “The New Generation of LA Rap is Changing Everything”, in Vice
- Synonyms:
- demoniac, demonic, diabolic, diabolical, hellish, infernal, fiendish, satanic, satanical, unhallowed
- Evil, wicked.
- For I abhore to smatter / Of one so deuyllysshe a matter.a. 1530 (date written), John Skelton, “Here after Foloweth a Lytell Boke, whiche hath to Name Why Come Ye Nat to Courte? […]”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […]...
- [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.1532, Thomas More, “The Confutacion of [William] Tyndale’s Aunswere […]. The Maner and Order of Our Eleccion.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More...
- Roguish or mischievous.
- a devilish grin
- [S]he gave me that lovely devilish smile that said: I like liberty, and not necessarily accountability.2009 December, Dennis L. Siluk, A Leaf and a Rose (A Paris-Munich Romance-Novelette; III), iUniverse, →ISBN, page 41
- Excessive, extreme.
- A devilish effort yielded a devilish success.
- I had a devilish time moving the wardrobe downstairs.
- Synonyms:
- lavish, wanton, excessive, horrendous, de trop, extravagant, extreme, immoderate, intemperate, nimious
Adverb
devilish (comparative more devilish, superlative most devilish)
- Devilishly; very; exceedingly.
- It was devilish hot outside today.
- Only I wish it had gone the other way for it's devilish awkward for me as it happens.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
devilish meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
devilish in Urdu
- دشمنانہ, خبیثہ, خطرناک, شیطانی
devilish in Malayalam
- demonic, diabolical, fiendish
- പെെശാചികം, പെെശാച, പെെശാചിക, അതിദുഷ്ടം, മഹാക്രൂരമായ, ദാരുണം
- evil, wicked, iniquitous
- പെെചാചിക, അതിദുഷ്ടമായ, ഹൃദയശൂന്യമായ, അധാർമ്മികമായ ദുഷിച്ച, തിന്മനിറഞ്ഞ, അനീതിയായ
- tricky, difficult, ticklish
- കുഴപ്പം പിടിച്ച, പ്രയാസമേറിയ, കഠിനം, ദുഷ്കരം, വിഷമമുള്ള, ആയാസകരമായ
devilish in Kannada
- ಕ್ರೂರ, ಕೆಡುಕಿನ, ಪೈಶಾಚಿಕ
Examples of devilish in a sentence
- "I was a wild child," she said, sounding devilish, "never did get tamed.
- For the past few hundred years, Americans have considered chocolate more devilish than divine.
- None of this bothered the jBoat sailors, whose nimble craft challenged devilish winds and currents.
Synonyms of devilish
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of devilish
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more devilish |
| superlative | most devilish |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more devilish |
| superlative | most devilish |
Origin of devilish
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”).
Words formed from devilish
Questions about devilish
- What does devilish mean?
- Devilish means resembling a devil.
- What is devilish in Urdu?
- Devilish in Urdu is دشمنانہ, خبیثہ, خطرناک. See Devilish meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is devilish?
- Devilish can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce devilish?
- Devilish is pronounced /ˈdɛvəlɪʃ/.
Words near devilish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: devilish (page history and authors); devilish (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); devilish (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); devilish (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-devilish.wav.
Cite this entry: “devilish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/devilish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.