the devil a one

Pronoun

the devil a one

1. (dated, idiomatic, regional, slang) Not a single one, none (of a number of people or things).
   • making great chear with a good deal of vineger, the devil a one of them did forbear from his victuals, it was a triumphant and incomparable spectacle to see how they ravened and devoured.1653, Thomas Urquhart, transl., The First Book of the Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, London: Richard Baddeley, Book 2, Chapter 26, p. 168-169
   • […] she wou’d have corrupted all their Wives; the Devil a one wou’d have made her own Butter, after being acquainted with her.1709, Susanna Centlivre, The Man’s Bewitch’d, London: Bernard Lintott, act V, page 66
2. (dated, idiomatic, regional, slang) Not; with a singular pronoun, negates the clause.
   • The devil a one of me will ever set foot there.
   • […] I met just as strange a man, and he sitting on his hat on the banks of the Fairy Lake of Lisnavarna, watching the moon’s reflection in the clear waters, and the devil a one of him knew that he was contrary at all.1916, Seumas O’Brien, “The Lady of the Moon”, in The Whale and the Grasshopper and other Fables,, Boston: Little, Brown, page 164