fiendish
/ˈfiːndɪʃ
/adjective
1Extremely cruel or unpleasant: fiendish methods of torture...
- I seem to be stuck halfway between fiendish laughter and pathetic sobbing.
- Human beings over the ages have delighted in the most horrific and fiendish methods of inflicting extreme suffering, pain and mutilation.
Synonyms
wicked, cruel, vicious, evil, nefarious, unspeakable;
brutal, brutish, savage, barbaric, barbarous, beastly, inhuman, murderous, bloodthirsty, ferocious;
ruthless, heartless, pitiless, merciless, black-hearted, unfeeling;
malevolent, malicious, villainous, malignant, devilish, diabolical, hellish, demonic, satanic, Mephistophelian, ungodly;
odious, base
archaic or humorous dastardly
1.1 informal Extremely awkward or complex: a fiendish problem...
- The superlatively analytical Inspector Hemingway reveals his unnerving talent for solving a fiendish problem.
- She triumphed over a field of men and women of all ages with a winning time of 13 minutes 48 seconds for a super fiendish puzzle.
Synonyms
difficult, complex, complicated, intricate, involved, knotty, thorny, ticklish, abstruse, impenetrable, unfathomable;
challenging, puzzling, baffling, perplexing, bemusing;
frustrating
Derivatives
fiendishly
/ adverb [as submodifier]: a fiendishly clever plan...
- At least, it would be if the fiendishly clever designers of the particular variant we had did not have access to the same anti-virus web sites we did.
- This is a fiendishly clever plot, and Burkett is indeed the patsy.
- Here's a fiendishly clever game that will keep you engaged until Halloween, or Christmas, depending on how unbusy you are.
fiendishness
/ noun ...- The collected fiendishness of Frankenstein, Dracula, Freddy, Chucky, the Mummy, Norman Bates's mommy, and Rosemary's baby cannot hold a candle to the terror wrought by an insecure actor, a monomaniacal director, or a stalking camera.
- According to one newspaper, ‘the fiendishness and brutality of his acts were such that the postal laws will not permit us to print them.’
- He wants to show us that the entire world is made up of hidden facets of fiendishness, be it in the rather routine gore of a food factory or, with Eyes, the secret experiments of a deranged doctor.