fiend
Americannoun
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Satan; the devil.
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any evil spirit; demon.
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a diabolically cruel or wicked person.
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a person or thing that causes mischief or annoyance.
Those children are little fiends.
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Informal. a person who is extremely addicted to some pernicious habit.
an opium fiend.
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Informal. a person who is excessively interested in some game, sport, etc.; fan; buff.
a bridge fiend.
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a person who is highly skilled or gifted in something.
a fiend at languages.
verb (used without object)
noun
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an evil spirit; demon; devil
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a person who is extremely wicked, esp in being very cruel or brutal
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informal
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a person who is intensely interested in or fond of something
a fresh-air fiend
he is a fiend for cards
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an addict
a drug fiend
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(informal) a mischievous or spiteful person, esp a child
noun
Other Word Forms
- fiendlike adjective
- underfiend noun
Etymology
Origin of fiend
First recorded before 900; Middle English feend, Old English fēond; cognate with German Feind, Old Norse fjandr, Gothic fijands “foe,” originally present participle of fijan “to hate”
Explanation
A fiend is a person or monster who has evil plans in their mind. They may try to steal your soul, or perhaps just want to hurt your feelings. Either way, fiends never mean you well. The Old English root word for fiend translates to “an enemy, the devil, a demon”: three cruel characters that would delight in causing you harm. Watch out for fiends like them. A less wicked type of fiend is one who loves something so much that it’s scary, like a sugar-addicted jelly bean fiend, or a snowboarding fiend. Fiend is a good example of the “i before e except after c” rule, so follow that and you’ll always spell it right.
Vocabulary lists containing fiend
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act III
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"Macbeth" Vocabulary from Act V
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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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.
Matthieu Jalibert, a broken-field fiend, accepted the invite to run back and England were back under the pump.
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026
“The fiend has no head,” Knight commented in his review.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2026
It telegraphs that Abigail is no barbaric horror fiend but instead a sophisticated aesthete, which makes her both scarier and funnier.
From New York Times • Apr. 22, 2024
Ryker was a hockey fiend at about a year old, watching 6 a.m.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 9, 2024
They plan and they fix and they do, and then some kitchen- dwelling fiend slips a scorchy, soggy, tasteless mess into their pots and pans.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
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.
