deil
(dil)
[Scotch vernacular form of the word devil, corresponding to the ME. monosyllabic types del, dele, dewle, dule, etc.]
1. The Devil: esp. according to the popular conception of his appearance and attributes.
(For the Biblical Satan, the usual form is deevil.)
| 1500–20 Dunbar Turnament 54 Off all his dennar..His breist held deill a bitt. 1570 Sempill Ballates (1872) 117 The mekle Deill. 1725 Ramsay Gent. Sheph. iii. ii, Awa! awa! the deil's [v.r. deel's] ower grit wi' you. 1785 Burns Address to the Deil ii, I'm sure sma' pleasure it can gie, Ev'n to a deil. 1790 ― Tam o' Shanter 78 That night a child might understand, The Deil had business on his hand. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xxxiii, Being atween the deil and the deep sea. |
2. A mischievously wicked or troublesome fellow; one who embodies the spirit of wickedness or mischief.
| 1786 Burns Twa Dogs 222 They're a' run deils or jads thegither. 1802 Scott Bonnie Dundee ii, The Guid Toun is well quit of that deil of Dundee. Mod. Sc. He's an awfu' laddie, a perfit deil. |
3. For deil a bit, and other phrases, see devil.