beˈdevilled, -iled, ppl. a.
[f. prec. + -ed.]
1. Possessed with, or as with, a devil.
| 1574 Hellowes Gueuara's Ep. (1577) 310 He commeth from abroade so furious..and so beediveld, that none may abide him. 1668 R. Lestrange Vis. Quev. (1708) 2 You are to say, this is a Devil Catchpol'd, and not a Catchpole bedevil'd. 1785–95 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Lousiad Wks. iv. I. 296 No sheep, like sheep be-devill'd, ran about. 1879 R. Stevenson Trav. Cevennes 180 Those who took to the hills..had all gloomy and bedevilled thoughts. |
2. Driven frantic, as if by satanic agency; worried, ‘bothered.’
| 1828 Southey Lett. (1856) IV. 92 This be-duped and bedevil'd nation. 1852 Hawthorne Blithed. Rom. II. iii. 61 Bedevilled with one grief or another. |
3. Mischievously or bewilderingly transformed, utterly confused, or muddled.
| 1755 Smollett Quix. (1803) I. 47 The unintelligible and bedeviled discourses of his author. 1809 Windham Let. in Speeches (1812) I. 114 The whole is so bedevilled, that there is no restoring things to their original state. |
4. Cookery. Grilled or broiled, with the addition of hot spice; = devilled.
| 1814 Southey in Q. Rev. XII. 223 The gizzard was..sent from the table to be broiled and seasoned, and..returned thus bedevilled. 1862 Sat. Rev. 13 Sept. 309 Whitebait simple and whitebait bedevilled. |