fiend
- Satan; the devil.
- any evil spirit; demon.
- a diabolically cruel or wicked person.
- a person or thing that causes mischief or annoyance: Those children are little fiends.
- Informal. a person who is extremely addicted to some pernicious habit: an opium fiend.
- Informal. a person who is excessively interested in some game, sport, etc.; fan; buff: a bridge fiend.
- a person who is highly skilled or gifted in something: a fiend at languages.
- Also feen [feen] /fin/. Slang. to desire greatly: just another junkie fiending after his next hit; As soon as I finish a cigarette I'm fiending to light another.
Origin of fiend
Examples from the Web for fiend
Contemporary Examples
By the end Buck has been transformed into a monster—“the Fiend incarnate.”
Here is another Potter fiend crying over Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
Historical Examples
The fiend prevailed; and Prudence vanished into the outer darkness.
John Inglefield's ThanksgivingNathaniel Hawthorne
Under the tutelage of the mad god, White Fang became a fiend.
White FangJack London
Twas seen and told how an avenger survived the fiend, as was learned afar.
BeowulfAnonymous
“I think von Francius would be a fiend if he could,” said Karl, comfortably.
The First ViolinJessie Fothergill
His two aids, the Saint and the Fiend, had a bad time of it.
Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2)William Delisle Hay
fiend
- an evil spirit; demon; devil
- a person who is extremely wicked, esp in being very cruel or brutal
- informal
- a person who is intensely interested in or fond of somethinga fresh-air fiend; he is a fiend for cards
- an addicta drug fiend
- (informal) a mischievous or spiteful person, esp a child
Word Origin
Fiend
- the Fiend the devil; Satan
Word Origin and History for fiend
n.
Old English feond "enemy, foe," originally present participle of feogan "to hate," from Proto-Germanic *fijæjan (cf. Old Frisian fiand "enemy," Old Saxon fiond, Middle Dutch viant, Dutch vijand "enemy," Old Norse fjandi, Old High German fiant, Gothic fijands), from PIE root *pe(i)- "to blame, revile" (cf. Gothic faian "to blame;" see passion).
As spelling suggests, it was originally the opposite of friend, but the word began to be used in Old English for "Satan" (as the "enemy of mankind"), which shifted its sense to "diabolical person" (early 13c.). The old sense of the word devolved to foe, then to the imported word enemy. For spelling with -ie- see field. Meaning "devotee (of whatever is indicated)," e.g. dope fiend, is from 1865.