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speak of the devil
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Idioms and Phrases
The person just mentioned has appeared, as in Why, speak of the devil—there's Jeannie . This expression is a shortening of the older Speak of the devil and he's sure to appear , based on the superstition that pronouncing the devil's name will cause his arrival on the scene. The figurative use was already explained in James Kelly's Scottish Proverbs (1721).Advertisement
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[tawr-choo-uhs ]
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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.
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