bedevil
to torment or harass maliciously or diabolically, as with doubts, distractions, or worries.
to possess, as with a devil; bewitch.
to cause confusion or doubt in; muddle; confound: an issue bedeviled by prejudices.
to beset or hamper continuously: a new building bedeviled by elevator failures.
Origin of bedevil
1Other words from bedevil
- be·dev·il·ment, noun
Words Nearby bedevil
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use bedevil in a sentence
“I think one of the difficulties is that a lot of these studies are bedeviled by problems in methods,” says Ian Mitchell, professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of Calgary in Canada.
These issues bedeviled companies back in 2018, and new data shows continued gaps between the permissions people give companies to collect and use their data and what ad tech firms actually do.
Ad trackers continue to collect Europeans’ data without consent under the GDPR, say ad data detectives | Kate Kaye | October 4, 2021 | DigidayFor more than a century, explorers who ventured into the highest mountains had been bedevilled by cases of “high altitude pneumonia,” in which young, vigorous men were struck down, often fatally, within days of arriving at altitude.
The sharper protests against “toxic philanthropy” that have bedeviled the Whitney and the Museum of Modern Art aren’t discussed.
New documentary about the Metropolitan Museum of Art asks good questions, but not enough tough ones | Philip Kennicott | May 27, 2021 | Washington PostA question that has long bedeviled bitcoin observers is how to value it.
Bitcoin is worth whatever Elon Musk and Cathie Wood say it is | John Detrixhe | February 24, 2021 | Quartz
Matthew Yglesias on how President Obama can woo back liberals, bedevil the GOP—and change the outcome this fall.
And the rifts produced by the idea-besotted '60s continue to bedevil us.
What's become of that little boot-black that you used to bedevil?
Gabriel Conroy | Bert HarteOf all the vegetables calculated to bedevil human beings, he decided, growing corn was the worst.
The Duck-footed Hound | James Arthur KjelgaardThis contract in a very few years arose to bedevil the railroad situation in the North Country.
The Story of the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg RailRoad | Edward HungerfordI've been listening to you trying to bedevil that man out there, but I'm afraid your humor is a little on the slap-stick order.
Wide Courses | James Brendan ConnollyThese miserable slaves and reptiles—mongrel Spaniards and mongrel Indians—can not very long bedevil that great country.
Confession | W. Gilmore Simms
British Dictionary definitions for bedevil
/ (bɪˈdɛvəl) /
to harass or torment
to throw into confusion
to possess, as with a devil
Derived forms of bedevil
- bedevilment, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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