| 释义 |
fiendish, a. (and adv.)|ˈfiːndɪʃ|
[f. as prec. + -ish.]
Resembling, or characteristic of, a fiend; superhumanly cruel and malignant. Also as adv., excessively, horribly.
1529More Comf. agst. Trib. ii. Wks. 1187/1 This woman was so fendish. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. vii. 6 It hath a fiendish look. 1801Southey Thalaba viii. x, Through the vampire corpse He thrust his lance..And..Its fiendish tenant fled. 1823Praed Troubadour ii. 563 And Satan will grin with a fiendish glee. 1861W. James Let. Sept. (1920) I. 38, I have noticed fleeting shades of expression on her face..unhuman, ghoul⁓like, fiendish-cunning! 1871Freeman Hist. Ess. Ser. i. 74 The fiendish brutalities practised by him. 1891S. Hale Lett. (1919) 258 As all the Continent is fiendish cold, we did wisely.
transf.1836Kingsley Lett. I. 35 The wavy lightning glared over the sea with fiendish light.
Hence ˈfiendishly adv. (also in trivial use); ˈfiendishness.
1613Bp. Hall Holy Panegyricke 39 Those Dames which vnder a cloke of modestie..hide nothing but pride, and fiendishnesse. 1801Southey Thalaba ii. xvii, A smile That kindled to more fiendishness Her hideous features. 1879Black Macleod of D. viii, A calm and dignified silence is the best answer to the fiendishness of thirteen. 1879E. Nesbit Let. in D. L. Moore E. Nesbit (1933) iii. 47 Remember I am fiendishly busy sometimes. 1951Mind LX. 428 A correlation of observations, fiendishly difficult in practice. |