Search the Dictionary

A juggler's trick; conjuring. [Obs.] The devil is the author of wicked figgum. B. Jonson.

To tread down; to trample upon. [Obs.] In hell shall they be all fortroden of devils. Chaucer.

ad; a street (as in Highgate). [O. Eng. & Scot.] I was going to be an honest man; but the devil has this very day flung first a lawyer, and then a woman, in my gate. Sir W. Scott.

hianectes glaucus), formerly taken in large numbers in the bays; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead.

Hold; influence. When the devil hath got such a hank over him. Bp. Sanderson.

Haunted by devils; hellish. Dryden.

containing power for. Broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jer. ii. 13. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. Shak.

ngular horns between the eyes; -- called also sidewinder. -- Horned ray (Zoöl.), the sea devil. -- Horned screamer (Zoöl.), the kamichi. -- Horned snake (Zoöl.), the cerastes. -- Horned toad (Zoöl.), any lizard of the genus Phrynosoma, of which nine or ten species are known. These lizards have several hornlike spin…

r used as an object of worship; a similitude of a false god. That they should not worship devils, and idols of gold. Rev. ix. 20.

To deceive; to entice; to lure. [Obs.] The devil insnareth the souls of many men, by illuring them with the muck and dung of this world. Fuller.

A young or inferior devil; a little, malignant spirit; a puny demon; a contemptible evil worker. To mingle in the clamorous fray Of squabbling imps. Beattie.

Not in the flesh; spiritual. [Obs.] I fear nothing . . . that devil carnate or incarnate can fairly do. Richardson.

a lascivious spirit, supposed to have sexual intercourse with women by night. Tylor. The devils who appeared in the female form were generally called succubi; those who appeared like men incubi, though this distinction was not always preserved. Lecky.

; esp. to evil or wickedness. The baseness and villainy that . . . the instigation of the devil could bring the sons of men to. South.

One of an Oriental religious sect which worships Satan or the Devil. The Izedis or Yezdis, the so-called Devil worshipers, still remain a numerous though oppressed people in Mesopotamia and adjacent countries. Tylor.

A genus of great seaweeds with long and broad fronds; kelp, or devil's apron. The fronds commonly grow in clusters, and are sometimes from thirty to fifty feet in length. See Illust. of Kelp.

d as a part or member of, or attachment to, something else. Shak. That little limb of the devil has cheated the gallows. Sir W. Scott.

Of or pertaining to Lucifer; having the pride of Lucifer; satanic; devilish.

at which is devised; a device; a hostile or treacherous scheme; an artful design or plot. Devilish machinations come to naught. Milton. His ingenious machinations had failed. Macaulay.

e effects apparently supernatural. -- Superstitious, or Geotic, magic, the invocation of devils or demons, involving the supposition of some tacit or express agreement between them and human beings.