demoniac
/dɪˈməʊnɪak
/adjective
Relating to or characteristic of a demon or demons: a goddess with both divine and demoniac qualities demoniac rage...
- One of them gives a demoniac plan, and another comes and gives a demoniac clap to it.
- Her silky mane of angelic blonde hair still remained unchanged, but it now looked hideously out of place on her demoniac head.
- The six-storey tall screen captures the demoniac fury of the falls in such realistic detail that you cringe with fear as you watch it.
noun
A person supposedly possessed by an evil spirit.So with the assistance of his possessed, his demoniacs, or his convulsionaries, he procured testimonies which, from his own mouth, would have been too suspicious, and might have caused him hatred....
- ‘Throughout the auditorium, demoniacs are paired off with exorcism ministers,’ writes Cuneo, who himself rushed help wrestle down a particularly violent demoniac to prevent him from further battering Pastor Mike.
- While Nickell mentioned that many early cases of possession were probably due to disorders such as epilepsy or Tourette's syndrome, pharmacology may also play an increasing role in treating alleged demoniacs.
Derivatives
demoniacal
/ adjective ...- The Irish have always looked on cats as evil and mysteriously connected with some demoniacal influence.
- A wailing woman would seek protection from an irate, drunken partner, and there would be more than a few times when he and some other man had to wrestle a knife or an axe off a jealous husband or a demoniacal lover.
- With demoniacal glee, he pointed to the ground and eagerly nodded.
demoniacally
- He uttered veiled threats; for example, he would cackle demoniacally and wail in a sepulchral voice.
- The result is less demoniacally obsessive than the orchestral original but is a tour-de-force for two pianists.
- There is no passion so demoniacally impatient as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus mediates a plunge.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French demoniaque, from ecclesiastical Latin daemoniacus, from daemonium 'lesser or evil spirit' (see demon1).