bedevil
verb (used with object)
to torment or harass maliciously or diabolically, as with doubts, distractions, or worries.
bedevilling
-
present participleof bedevil.present participle
A verb form that is used in progressive verb constructions and may also function as a modifier or a gerund.
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 whole affair became a test case for Pope Francis's aim of clearing up the Vatican's finances, which were long plagued by scandal, bedevilling the papacy of Francis's predecessor, Benedict XVI.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2023
Those updates should shrink the error bars on the telescope’s calibrations from the tens of percentage points that have been bedevilling astronomers in some areas, down to just a few percentage points.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 11, 2022
But the supply-chain snarl-ups, container traffic jams and chip shortages bedevilling companies worldwide show no signs of going away any time soon.
From Reuters ● Oct. 26, 2021
Zuckerberg is hoping to erect a scalable system, an orderly decision tree that accounts for every eventuality and exception, but the boundaries of speech are a bedevilling problem that defies mechanistic fixes.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 10, 2018
O happy days, when men received From sire to son what all believed, And left the other world in bliss, Too busy with bedevilling this!
From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell by James Russell Lowell
