printer's devilry
printer's devilry noun: a type of crossword puzzle where solvers have to identify the string of letters, spelling out a word, that has been removed from a sentence.
Noun (1)
printer's devilry (countable and uncountable, plural printer's devilries or printers' devilries)
- A type of crossword puzzle where solvers have to identify the string of letters, spelling out a word, that has been removed from a sentence.
- Remember: a Printer's Devilry clue need not make real sense in the “deviled” form offered as clue.1973 January 1, New York Magazine, page 71
- I hope that devotees of our plain puzzles will forgive my offering prizes for Apex's Mrs Printer's Devilry Theme1979, Games & Puzzles
- A typographical error.
- This was not a printer's devilry, for taffetas, sugar, mats are similarly misstated.1909, The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review and Oriental and Colonial Record
- The writer adopted the initials after his nom de plume, Aeon, was once shortened accidentally through printer's devilry.2002, Tim Pat Coogan, Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland, Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 445
Noun (2) capitalized: Printer's Devilry
Printer's Devilry
- Alternative letter-case form of printer's devilry (“crossword puzzle”).
- In addition, based on a British form called "Printer's Devilry," each answer word has been " stolen" from its clue, wherein it was originally hidden as consecutive letters.1968, Albert Ross Eckler, Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics
- Solvers must not only complete the diagram but also send in a "Printer's Devilry" clue to the Keyword in the Playfair Square.1971, New York Magazine, page 65
Examples of printer's devilry in a sentence
- Numbered down clues are printer's devilry passages from which the light to be entered has been removed and the gap closed, leaving the remaining letters in their original order.1989, The Listener:
- The Bengali as well as the translated texts are not free from Printer's devilry.2002, Pratibha India:
Forms of printer's devilry
| plural | printer's devilries |
|---|---|
| plural | printers' devilries |
| alternative form | Printer's Devilry |
Origin of printer's devilry
Formed by printer's devil + -ry or blend of printer's devil + devilry. As a crosswording term, coined by British crossword setter Alistair Ferguson Ritchie (Afrit).
Questions about printer's devilry
- What does printer's devilry mean?
- Printer's devilry means a type of crossword puzzle where solvers have to identify the string of letters, spelling out a word, that has been removed from a sentence.
- How do you use printer's devilry in a sentence?
- Numbered down clues are printer's devilry passages from which the light to be entered has been removed and the gap closed, leaving the remaining letters in their original order.
- What part of speech is printer's devilry?
- Printer's devilry is a noun.
- What is the plural of printer's devilry?
- The plural of printer's devilry is printer's devilries.
Words near printer's devilry in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: printer's devilry (page history and authors); Printer's Devilry (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.
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Cite this entry: “printer's devilry.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/printer%27s_devilry. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.