[dev-uh
l] 
noun, verb, -iled, -il⋅ing or (especially British) -illed, -il⋅ling.| 1. | Theology.
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| 2. | an atrociously wicked, cruel, or ill-tempered person. |
| 3. | a person who is very clever, energetic, reckless, or mischievous. |
| 4. | a person, usually one in unfortunate or pitiable circumstances: The poor devil kept losing jobs through no fault of his own. |
| 5. | Also called printer's devil. Printing. a young worker below the level of apprentice in a printing office. |
| 6. | any of various mechanical devices, as a machine for tearing rags, a machine for manufacturing wooden screws, etc. |
| 7. | Nautical. (in deck or hull planking) any of various seams difficult to caulk because of form or position. |
| 8. | any of various portable furnaces or braziers used in construction and foundry work. |
| 9. | the devil, (used as an emphatic expletive or mild oath to express disgust, anger, astonishment, negation, etc.): What the devil do you mean by that? |
| 10. | to annoy; harass; pester: to devil Mom and Dad for a new car. |
| 11. | to tear (rags, cloth, etc.) with a devil. |
| 12. | Cookery. to prepare (food, usually minced) with hot or savory seasoning: to devil eggs. |
| 13. | between the devil and the deep (blue) sea, between two undesirable alternatives; in an unpleasant dilemma. |
| 14. | devil of a, extremely difficult or annoying; hellish: I had a devil of a time getting home through the snow. |
| 15. | give the devil his due, to give deserved credit even to a person one dislikes: To give the devil his due, you must admit that she is an excellent psychologist. |
| 16. | go to the devil,
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| 17. | let the devil take the hindmost, to leave the least able or fortunate persons to suffer adverse consequences; leave behind or to one's fate: They ran from the pursuing mob and let the devil take the hindmost. |
| 18. | play the devil with, to ruin completely; spoil: The financial crisis played the devil with our investment plans. |
| 19. | raise the devil,
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| 20. | the devil to pay, trouble to be faced; mischief in the offing: If conditions don't improve, there will be the devil to pay. |
| dev·il (děv'əl) n.
[Middle English devel, from Old English dēofol, from Latin diabolus, from Late Greek diabolos, from Greek, slanderer, from diaballein, to slander : dia-, dia- + ballein, to hurl; see gwelə- in Indo-European roots.] |
Devil
(Gr. diabolos), a slanderer, the arch-enemy of man's spiritual interest (Job 1:6; Rev. 2:10; Zech. 3:1). He is called also "the accuser of the brethen" (Rev. 12:10). In Lev. 17:7 the word "devil" is the translation of the Hebrew _sair_, meaning a "goat" or "satyr" (Isa. 13:21; 34:14), alluding to the wood-daemons, the objects of idolatrous worship among the heathen. In Deut. 32:17 and Ps. 106:37 it is the translation of Hebrew _shed_, meaning lord, and idol, regarded by the Jews as a "demon," as the word is rendered in the Revised Version. In the narratives of the Gospels regarding the "casting out of devils" a different Greek word (daimon) is used. In the time of our Lord there were frequent cases of demoniacal possession (Matt. 12:25-30; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 4:35; 10:18, etc.).
devil
In addition to the idioms beginning with devil, also see between a rock and a hard place (devil and deep blue sea); full of it (the devil); give someone hell (the devil); give the devil his due; go to hell (the devil); luck of the devil; play the devil with; raise Cain (the devil); speak of the devil.