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fiendish

[feen-dish]
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adjective
  1. diabolically cruel and wicked.
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Origin of fiendish

First recorded in 1520–30; fiend + -ish1
Related formsfiend·ish·ly, adverbfiend·ish·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for fiendish

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • No wonder he is sometimes provoked to fiendish outbursts of wrath.

  • All that fiendish cruelty and the demon of destruction could do was done.

    The Roof of France

    Matilda Betham-Edwards

  • What was it—madness, a nightmare, or a trap into which he had been decoyed with fiendish artfulness?

    The Secret Agent

    Joseph Conrad

  • This language is wanton cruelty,—it is fiendish insult,—is it not, Evelyn?

  • So avenged I their fiendish deeds death-fall of Danes, as was due and right.

    Beowulf

    Anonymous

British Dictionary definitions for fiendish

fiendish

adjective
  1. of or like a fiend
  2. diabolically wicked or cruel
  3. informal extremely difficult or unpleasanta fiendish problem
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Derived Formsfiendishly, adverbfiendishness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fiendish

adj.

1520s, from fiend + -ish. Related: Fiendishly; fiendishness.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper