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A half devil. Shak.

A weight which is dropped into a bore, as of an oil well, to explode a cartridge previously lowered.

A number of fishhooks rigidly fastened back to be pulled through the water to catch fish.

Any large cephalopod, as a large Octopus, or a giant squid (Architeuthis). See Devilfish.

The European swift. [Prov. Eng.]

To free from possession by a devil or evil spirit; to exorcise. [Obs.] They boy having gotten a habit of counterfeiting . . . would not be undeviled by all their exorcisms. Fuller.

f which is intermingled with light or satirical songs, set to familiar airs. The early vaudeville, which is the forerunner of the opera bouffe, was light, graceful, and piquant. Johnson's Cyc.

The rapacious larva of a large water beetle (Hydrophilus piceus), and of other similar species. See Illust. of Water beetle.

uilt, mistake, or inferiority; to put to shame; to disconcert; to discomfit. Abashed, the devil stood, And felt how awful goodness is. Milton. He was a man whom no check could abash. Macaulay.

One of a class of "fallen angels;" an evil spirit; as, the devil and his angels.

se (as virgins, martyrs, preachers, etc.) who have overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.

a heathen deity to whom the Jews ascribed the sovereignty of the evil spirits; hence, the Devil or a devil. See Baal.

e, but is now wide-spread in warm countries; -- called also scutch grass, and in Bermuda, devil grass.

d betony (Stachys betonica); also, the plant called fennel flower (Nigella Damascena), or devil-in-a-bush.

f a flame; hence, of the color of burning brimstone, betokening the presence of ghosts or devils; as, the candle burns blue; the air was blue with oaths.

o, brimstone; as, brimstone matches. From his brimstone bed at break of day A-walking the devil has gone. Coleridge.

An evil spirit; a devil or demon. Shak.

ed in a system of representing geometric quantities, invented by Descartes. -- Cartesian devil, a small hollow glass figure, used in connection with a jar of water having an elastic top, to illustrate the effect of the compression or expansion of air in changing the specific gravity of bodies. -- Cartesion oval (Geom…

One of the generic names of the gigantic ray (Manta birostris), known as devilfish and sea devil. It is common on the coasts of South Carolina, Florida, and farther south. Some of them grow to enormous size, becoming twenty feet of more across the body, and weighing more than a ton.

y connected with a place, occupation, character, etc.; as, a child of God; a child of the devil; a child of disobedience; a child of toil; a child of the people.