devil of a

1. Also,; 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

Adam Devine has had a devil of a time the last few years with doctors trying to figure out why some of his muscles have been going into almost-paralytic spasms.

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Bacon is having a devil of a good time playing him.

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"It's been a devil of a job," he claims, "to get people in the trust to simply read the report, even the summary."

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"What happened was that in June 2016 the then-Prime Minister David Cameron evaporated, whistling, and then we had a devil of a job."

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Murray had a devil of a time doing anything productive against McDaniels, Edwards and the rest of the NBA-leading defense that snapped to life after revealing some sizeable cracks over the last three games.

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