devilry
Americannoun
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devilries
plural
noun
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reckless or malicious fun or mischief
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wickedness or cruelty
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black magic or other forms of diabolism
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of devilry
Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; see origin at devil, -ry
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.
See Examples For:
She could write and she wrote a great deal, including detective fiction, a gothic thriller “of devilry, seduction, and hashish” and stories about “ghosts, suicides, and kidnapping.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
How about you, dear reader: Who are the sword and sorcery protagonists that scratch your itch for devilry and adventure?
From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2021
What else could it be — and what new devilry is waiting for us tomorrow?
From Salon ● Oct. 8, 2019
There’s hardly one whole brain to be assembled from the scraps of mentality distributed among the story’s criminal plotters—and Steve, with his laid-back overconfidence in his casually cavalier devilry, proves no sharper than the rest.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 29, 2016
But when the eighth came round, a certain Phoinikian adventurer came too, a plausible rat, who had already done plenty of devilry in the world.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
The advance towards Bapaume was of special interest to R.F.C. squadrons on the Somme, for the town had been a troublesome centre of anti-aircraft devilries.
From Cavalry of the Clouds by Alan Bott
And you must understand that the deeds ascribed to these Idols are such a parcel of devilries as it is best not to tell.
From The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 2 by Henry Yule
Theer comed a circus here last month, with braave doin’s in the way of horsemanship and Merry Andrews, and such like devilries.
From Children of the Mist by Eden Phillpotts
In those days, before the methodical advance of the British artillery had begun to worry the stronghold overmuch, Bapaume was a hotbed of all the anti-aircraft devilries.
From Cavalry of the Clouds by Alan Bott
The Second Part of Faust is devilry all through, a tissue of bewilderments and devilries.
From The Three Devils: Luther's, Milton's, and Goethe's With Other Essays by David Masson
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