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
That makes a person wonder what manner of devilry they're concealing; after all, if there's literally nothing to see in front of us, surely it's hiding elsewhere.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2022
A different, more downbeat brand of devilry is afoot in "The Exorcist," which takes off from William Peter Blatty’s bestselling 1971 novel and director William Friedkin's 1973 film.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2016
What’s missing from his performance in the movie is present in the end-credits bloopers, where he cuts loose with a cry of primal anarchy that conjures the comedic devilry he’d been holding at bay.
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 7, 2016
Yet the devilry is in the details, and as I delved deeper, I discovered that the money in dispute was connected to another victim of the Reign of Terror, George Bigheart.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
This is the third of the series, the one of which Patty has foretold with horrid relish that it promises to be specially given over to devilries.
From Quality Street A Comedy by J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
With it, too, the idle can pass many an hour, which otherwise he would have given, not to work, but to extravagant devilries.
From The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness Being a Complete Guide for a Gentleman's Conduct in all his Relations Towards Society by Cecil B. Hartley
We never martyred a saint, and amid all the witch-hunting devilries of Scotland and England we burned only one witch, a namesake of my own.
From The Open Secret of Ireland by T. M. (Thomas Michael) Kettle
Smoke came from the chimneys of them, even in the hottest days of summer, and weird tales were told of the devilries there committed.
From The Magician by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
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
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.
