† devileen.
Law slang. Obsolete. rare.
A person who employs or gets another to do work on his or her behalf; a person whose work is devilled (see devil v. 5b).
ΚΠ
1876 Solicitors' Jrnl. 4 Mar. 356/1 The man for whom he ‘devils’..(let us call him the ‘devilee’) is injured, because, in deference to the custom of ‘devilling’, he must..take every brief that comes.
1880 Social Notes 20 Nov. 243/2 This unjust system is termed ‘devilling’, and those who appear in cases for which others are retained, at the sole request of the latter, are called ‘devils’, whilst the original holders of transferred briefs may be styled ‘devilees’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2017; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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