play the devil with

Idioms

Upset, ruin, make a mess of, as in This weather plays the devil with my aching joints, or Wine stains play the devil with a white tablecloth. This allusion to diabolical mischief is heard more in Britain than in America. [Mid-1500s] Also see the synonym play havoc.

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:

play the devil with

He hated it, but in self-defense he repressed his homesickness and began to play the devil with his wit.

From Time Magazine Archive

They will play the devil with his tyres.

From A Journal of Impressions in Belgium by May Sinclair

If he gets back to power, he will certainly play the devil with something.’

From The Real Gladstone an Anecdotal Biography by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie

Foreign languages and foreign cooking and all that would play the devil with me.

From What Will People Say? A novel by Rupert Hughes

"Well," began Jean Frollo once more, "we must play the devil with them."

From Notre-Dame De Paris by Isabel Florence Hapgood

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023