devil of a

Idioms and Phrases

Also, one devil or the devil of a ; hell of a . Infernally annoying or difficult, as in This is a devil of an assembly job , or She had one devil of a time getting through the traffic , or I had a hell of a morning sitting in that doctor's office . The first expression dates from the mid-1700s. The variant is a couple of decades newer and its precise meaning depends on the context. For example, We had a hell of a time getting here invariably means we had a very difficult or annoying time, but He is one hell of a driver could mean that he is either very good or very bad (see hell of a , def. 2).

Example Sentences

He was a handsome young devil-of-a-fellow with all of the soft, graceful beauty of the far southland.

From Project Gutenberg