Jump To:

• dickens
  dickens

  noun

  Usually the dickens devil; deuce (often used in exclamations and as a mild oath).
• Dickens
  Dickens

  noun

  Charles John Huffam, Boz, 1812–70, English novelist.

dickens

¹ American  

[dik-inz] / ˈdɪk ɪnz /

noun

1. Usually the dickens devil; deuce (often used in exclamations and as a mild oath).

   The dickens you say! What the dickens does he want?

---

Dickens ² American  

[dik-inz] / ˈdɪk ɪnz /

noun

1. Charles John Huffam, Boz, 1812–70, English novelist.

---

Dickens ¹ British  

/ ˈdɪkɪnz /

noun

1. Charles ( John Huffam ), pen name Boz. 1812–70, English novelist, famous for the humour and sympathy of his characterization and his criticism of social injustice. His major works include The Pickwick Papers (1837), Oliver Twist (1839), Nicholas Nickleby (1839), Old Curiosity Shop (1840–41), Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Little Dorrit (1857), and Great Expectations (1861)

---

dickens ² British  

/ ˈdɪkɪnz /

noun

1. informal a euphemistic word for devil

   what the dickens?

---

Other Word Forms

• Dickensian
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of dickens

First recorded in 1590–1600; apparently a fanciful use of Dicken, form of Dick, a proper name

Explanation

Use the noun dickens for emphasis, or to express surprise — for example, you might ask, "What the dickens is this goat doing in the kitchen?" The old-fashioned dickens is a gentle and inoffensive replacement for a profanity. Instead of shocking your grandmother by cursing, you can instead say, "After shoveling all that snow, my back hurts like the dickens." This exclamation has been around since the late 1500s, when it became a substitute for devil, but no one's sure exactly why dickens was used. It may be from the last name Dickens, though it definitely pre-dates the writer Charles Dickens.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dickens Dickens

The play is called “Love of the Game” because, basically, the receiver just runs like the dickens and hopes to draw enough attention to free up other receivers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2022

Her best bet, she decided, was to listen for the telltale squeak of her mailbox lid when the letter carrier stopped by in the afternoon and scream like the dickens.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2021

This would not be too bad, except we have very high ceilings and it echoes like the dickens.

From Slate ● Jan. 10, 2019

He knows that “An Inconvenient Truth” scared the dickens out of some people.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2017

“Sounds like you had a dickens of a time.”

From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray

In the 19th century, as the result of lobbying by authors such as Charles Dickens, the British Parliament enacted the Copyright Act of 1842.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

Serialized novels, popular among 19th-century writers like Charles Dickens, have experienced a resurgence with the advent of digital self-publishing platforms like Substack.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

His wannabe Robocops launch indiscriminate raids, operate detention facilities under conditions out of a Dickens novel and regularly don face masks to hide their identities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026

Dickens is open about her role as a caregiver in part as a way to decrease the stigma around bringing that part of a person’s life to work, she said.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026

I learned how a popular novelist like Dickens, writing for a middle-class audience, makes his readers aware of their ability to effect social reform.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez