diablerie
Americannoun
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diableries
plural
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diabolic magic or art; sorcery; witchcraft.
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the domain or realm of devils.
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the lore of devils; demonology.
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reckless mischief; deviltry.
noun
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magic or witchcraft connected with devils
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demonic lore or esoteric knowledge of devils
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the domain of devils
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devilry; mischief
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of diablerie
First recorded in 1650–60; from French: literally, “mischief,” from Old French diablerie, deablerie “an act inspired by the devil, sorcery,” equivalent to diable “devil” + -erie noun suffix; see devil, -ery
Explanation
Diablerie is a word that has to do with both mischief and the macabre. It describes anything from devilish behavior to black magic and dealings with the devil. The word is borrowed from the Middle French word diablerie, which is rooted in diable, "the devil." In English, it has two main shades of meaning: It can refer to sorcery, witchcraft, dark magic, or representations and descriptions of demons in art and literature. In 19th-century literature, it was a popular way to describe eerie or supernatural occurrences that defied explanation. But it also refers, in a more lighthearted way, to mischievous or "devilish" behavior.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Belated days of sunshine quickened all Hungary last week, speeding the Danube with tumbling freshets, warming Budapest to humorous appreciation of the first spring diablerie of Sari Fedak.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Maestro gets his laughs out of diablerie and the grotesque.
From Time Magazine Archive
Bassan dies, not according to prophetic schedule, but largely because of Fedora's diablerie, ahead of time.
From Time Magazine Archive
Louis was charmed by this exquisite exhibition of drollery and diablerie, and three weeks later she was brought to dance at Versailles.
From Terribly Intimate Portraits by Lorn Loraine
But the fifteenth century did a lot of diablerie in the West.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by George Saintsbury
By what may or may not be coincidence, their admirably precise diableries are also gentler, more conventional, more philosophical, more ethereal than their American counterparts'.
From Time Magazine Archive
During their sojourn within college walls, the rumours of diableries, of which his younger son had been the hero, were scarce compensated by the reports of scholastic triumphs on the part of the elder.
From The Finger of Fate A Romance by Mayne Reid
Milton was notoriously fond of high romance and gothic diableries; and Collins, who in genius and enthusiasm bore no very distant resemblance to Milton, was wholly carried away by the same attachments.
From The Poetical Works of William Collins With a Memoir by William Collins
He cannot be unreal—the "convincingness" of his most sordid as of his most splendid passages; of his most fantastic diableries as of his most everyday studies of society; is unsurpassed.
From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by George Saintsbury
These old countries are full of romances and legends and diableries of all sorts, in which truth and lies are so mixed that one does not know what to believe.
From Our Hundred Days in Europe by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
