bedevil
Americanverb (used with object)
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to torment or harass maliciously or diabolically, as with doubts, distractions, or worries.
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to possess, as with a devil; bewitch.
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to cause confusion or doubt in; muddle; confound.
an issue bedeviled by prejudices.
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to beset or hamper continuously.
a new building bedeviled by elevator failures.
verb
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to harass or torment
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to throw into confusion
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to possess, as with a devil
Other Word Forms
- bedevilment noun
Etymology
Origin of bedevil
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.
The challenge of basing a long novel on a villain appears to have bedeviled Mr. Mahajan.
High-pressure tactics, official-sounding messages and other tricks are potentially bedeviling taxpayers.
No one is predicting the same type that bedeviled the economy during the 1970s, but the signs of a problem are there all the same.
From Barron's
Their complexity bedevils the computer models that simulate how the climate could evolve.
That makes romance vulnerable to the same problem that bedevils almost every economic transaction: imperfect information.
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.
