Mephistopheles
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
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.
Railroad magnate and speculator Jay Gould was dubbed “the Mephistopheles of Wall Street” by ministers on the pulpit.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 2, 2025
In life, however, Höfgen plays Faust, the weak, tempted one, while the part of Mephistopheles is taken by the Nazi state and its functionaries.
From New York Times • Sep. 11, 2020
Rubbing his hands together, gleefully, like some kind of cut-rate Mephistopheles.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 28, 2019
Slipak, who had won fame in France for his renditions of the aria of Mephistopheles from the opera “Faust,” adopted the nom-de-guerre Meph.
From Seattle Times • Jul. 1, 2016
So you look upon me as a sort of Mephistopheles, eh?
From Mr. Marx's Secret by Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
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.
