Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Devilish character or conduct; extreme wickedness; wicked mischief.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Conduct suitable to the devil; extreme wickedness; deviltry.
- noun The whole body of evil spirits.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun
mischief . - noun wickedness, cruelty.
- noun an action performed with the help of a devil; witchcraft.
- noun An act of such mischief, wickedness, cruelty, or witchcraft.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun wicked and cruel behavior
- noun reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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But this conflation of good times with devilry is like something out of a 17th century Puritan ethic which goes by the dictum that someone somewhere is enjoying themselves and this must be stopped immediately.
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But Orientals are aware that the period of especial feminine devilry is between the first menstruation and twenty when, according to some, every girl is a “possible murderess.”
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Buck Klinker, returning from some stag devilry at the hour of two A.M., and attracted to the Scriptorium by the light under the door, found the little Doctor pacing the floor in his stocking feet, with the gas blazing and the shade up as high as it would go.
Queed Henry Sydnor Harrison 1905
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Those thieves would stand for any kind of devilry, and were willing to undertake all risks at Grim's bidding.
The Lion of Petra Talbot Mundy 1909
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They have treated them after a fashion which has intensified their treachery and "devilry" as enemies, and as friends reduces them to a degraded pauperism, devoid of the very first elements of civilization.
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He warrants the sounding-board neither breaking nor cracking; when he has finished one, he exposes it in the air to rain, snow, sun, and every kind of devilry, that it may give way, and then inserts slips of wood which he glues in, making it quite strong and solid.
The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart, Wolfgang A 1864
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He told the Privy Council, sitting at the Supreme Court, there had been an abuse of process through a variety of "devilry".
BBC News - Home 2011
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He warrants the sounding-board neither breaking nor cracking; when he has finished one, he exposes it in the air to rain, snow, sun, and every kind of devilry, that it may give way, and then inserts slips of wood which he glues in, making it quite strong and solid.
The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Volume 01 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1773
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It is not only Johnson's brute devilry which is missing, though when the Boks are scaling the ramparts a lashing of "cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war" wouldn't go amiss.
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"devilry" I cannot speak too highly, and in this matter even the pudibund Lane is as free-spoken as myself.
Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855
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