deviltry
Americannoun
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deviltries
plural
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reckless or unrestrained mischievous behavior.
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extreme or utter wickedness.
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an act or instance of mischievous or wicked behavior.
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diabolic magic or art.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of deviltry
First recorded in 1780–90; variant of devilry
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:
The mildly disastrous consequences of Eddie’s deviltry predictably set up the big moment at the end of the show in which Ward or June Cleaver would distill an important Life Lesson from the experience.
From Washington Post ● May 18, 2020
Why does Dirk — clearly an evil mastermind on the rise — care so much about his wishy-washy, rather inept partner in deviltry?
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2019
It was another bit of deviltry cooked up by education majors.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2012
Although she left the décor as it was, she could not resist a bit of deviltry.
From New York Times ● Jul. 9, 2011
“It is a marvelously small ear, and at the top it is shaped and carved after the fashion in which old sculptors indicated deviltry and vice in their statues of satyrs.”
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Josh Clunk, London criminal lawyer, who chants revival hymns while plotting legal deviltries, saves a client and clears up, in his own oblique style, four mysterious deaths in a corrupt English seaside town.
From Time Magazine Archive
Too familiar were they with Vienna's fantastic deviltries to ignore such a scent.
From Time Magazine Archive
Because it does not have to crowd the child's progressive deviltries into a few solid blocks of stage action, the film makes Emil a more thoroughly plausible character than he was in the play.
From Time Magazine Archive
And one of them is free, and able to plan new deviltries.
From The Boy Scout Fire Fighters or Jack Danby's Bravest Deed by Robert Maitland
Before the deviltries of 1789 began, the marketplace of St.-Amand must have been one of the most picturesque in Northern Europe.
From France and the Republic A Record of Things Seen and Learned in the French Provinces During the 'Centennial' Year 1889 by William Henry Hurlbert
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