devil dodgern.
/ˈdɛvl ˌdɒdʒə/, U.S. /ˈdɛv(ə)l ˌdɑdʒər/ slang (humorous and derisive). Now rare (chiefly historical).
1. An extremely devout or sanctimonious person, esp. a preacher.
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society > faith > aspects of faith > piety > sanctimoniousness > [noun] > person
Pharisee1539
card gospeller1550
lip-gospeller?1556
saint1563
table-gospeller1570
separatist1620
Christera1650
canter1652
high-liver1715
cant1725
pietist1767
devil dodger1791
goody1816
creeping Jesusc1818
Mawworm1825
goody-two-shoes1843
Pecksniff1844
goody-goody1872
goody-good1879
lip-Christian1882
plaster saint1890
holy Willie1916
1791 J. Lackington Memoirs vi. 45 These devil-dodgers happened to be so very powerful..that they soon sent John home, crying out, he should be damn'd! he should be damn'd for ever!
1836 F. Chamier Ben Brace II. ix. 236 ‘That won't do,’ continued the devil-dodger; ‘you must say only, I will.’
1886 G. Allen For Maimie's Sake i. 9 He has a rabid objection to the clergy—the black brigade and the devil-dodgers, he calls them.
1939 V. Fisher Children of God i. vii. 69 ‘What this devil-dodger needs’, said a big man, swaggering, ‘is a rope around his gullet!’
2012 Sowetan (S. Afr.) (Nexis) 13 Apr. Qomoyi, described as a ‘devil-dodger to the core’, was an avid reader of the scriptures and his sermons were so captivating that they remained in the minds of the congregants for weeks.
2. A person who attends services of more than one Christian denomination, esp. the Church of England and either a Nonconformist church or the Roman Catholic Church.
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1842 Patriot 22 Dec. 845/4 Worldly men call such trimmers between Conformity and Dissent, ‘devil-dodgers’.
1893 M. West Born Player 202 Unbiassed people who went to church in the morning and to chapel in the evening—devil-dodgers as they were coarsely called, who were determined to be right one way or another.
1963 W. M. Williams West Country Village ii. vii. 185 Ashworthy has its share of ‘indifferent believers’, known locally as ‘devil dodgers’.
2006 D. Hastings Over Mountains of Sea iii. 95 Methodists..earned themselves the nickname of ‘devil dodgers’ because they held their own prayer meetings as well as attending formal services.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1791