fiend
/fiːnd
/noun
1An evil spirit or demon.The evil that was spawned from Cain became spirits, monsters, fiends, goblins and giants, forging the blood feud between mankind and monster....
- And with that, she stood up, and walked out into the forest, prepared to battle the evil fairy fiends.
- Translation: prison guards = evil fiends from Hell that take pleasure in the suffering of others.
Synonyms
demon, devil, evil spirit, imp, bogie;
incubus, succubus;
hellhound
informal spook
rare cacodemon
1.1 (the fiend) archaic The Devil.The Fiend has gone forth by night, and startled thousands in fear and wonder....
- The summoner refuses, and the fiend drags the summoner off to hell, where all summoners have very special places.
1.2A very wicked or cruel person: Britain’s most notorious sex fiend...
- And don't panic, racist fiends: For now, your chances of getting to marry a white person are still well over 50 percent!
- When it looks as though all the music, the art, the architecture, the literature - the whole of human civilization - means nothing to the fiends who run the world?
- How about ‘Columbine,’ the story of how two young teens in love are one day forced to battle evil black coated fiends with only their wits and paper clips.
Synonyms
brute, beast, villain, barbarian, monster, ogre, sadist, evil-doer
informal baddy, swine
archaic blackguard
2 informal An enthusiast or devotee of a particular thing: a football fiend...
- Two distant older brothers were in Japanese government service but she considered herself an American ‘jazz fiend.’
- I have to applaud Chris for his miraculous, classy turn-around from drug-riddled dope fiend to responsible father and Broadway star.
- All the clichés of the form are on display in ‘Plague in the Heartland,’ worn down every bit as smooth as the teeth of a longtime meth fiend.
Synonyms
enthusiast, fanatic, maniac, addict;
devotee, fan, lover, follower;
aficionado, connoisseur, appreciator
informal buff, freak, nut, ham, sucker, great one
Derivatives
fiendlike
- Think of Macbeth's marriage to that "fiendlike" queen of his.
- Loud above all was the exultant, fiendlike yell of the Confederate soldiers.
Origin
Old English fēond 'an enemy, the devil, a demon', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vijand and German Feind 'enemy'.