Forms: 1–2 féond, north. fiond (pl. fíend, fýnd, feond, fond, north. fiond, fiondas; dat. sing. fíend, fýnd, féonde), 3–4 feond (pl. feond, fiend, feondes), 3 feont, fond, south. veond), 2–7 fend(e, (3 fent), 3–6 find(e, 3–7 feind(e, (4 south. vyend), 4–6 feynd, fynd(e, (5 fynt), 4–7 feend(e, (4 fende, 7 feigne), 8 Sc. fient, fint, 4– fiend. [Com. Teut.: OE. féond = OFris. fîand, OS. fîond, fîund (MDu. vîant, Du. vijand), OHG. fîant (MHG. vîent, vînt, mod.G. feind), ON. fjánde (Sw. fiende, Da. fjende), Goth. fijands; originally the pr. pple. of OTeut. *fíjêjan (OE. féoȝean, OHG. fîên, ON. fjá, Goth. fijan) to hate. The formation is parallel with that of FRIEND.]
† 1. An enemy; foe. Obs.
Beowulf, 2289.
| Stonc þa æfter stane, stearcheort onfand | |
| feondes fotlast. |
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., Matt. v. 43. Hate þine fiond [c. 1000 and c. 1160 feond].
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia, VIII. 323. Geflitȝeorne & godes fynd.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 231. Bi tweone frend and fend.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 98. Ueond þet þuncheð freond is swike ouer alle swike.
c. 1320. R. Brunne, Medit., 1124. And þe fende bonde to make to þe.
1340. Ayenb., 19. He ys wel renay þet þet land þet he halt of his lhorde deþ into þe hond of his uyende.
2. spec. The arch-enemy of mankind; the devil. More fully: fiend of hell, foul fiend, old fiend. † Fiend’s limb = limb of Satan (see LIMB).
a. 1000. Hymns, viii. 25 (Gr.). Ðu fiond ȝeflæmdest.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 294. Hit eac deah wiþ feondes costungum yflum.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 67. Ure fond nefre ne linnen [cease] for to fonden us mid sunnen.
a. 1225. St. Marher., 1. Ouercomen ant akasten hare þreo cunne fan þe feont.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1056 (Cott.).
| Þis abel was a blissed blod, | |
| Bot caim was þe findes fode. |
c. 1340. Cursor Mundi, 14880 (Trin.).
| Leuer had þei se þe fend of helle | |
| Þen him amonges hem to dwelle. |
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 357. It falliþ ofte bi þis lawe, þat a tyraunt and a fendis lyme is put bifore a lyme of Crist.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 18. Fecche þat þe feond cleymeþ.
c. 1460. Play Sacram., 953. I shalle yow blysse to saue yow alle from the fendis blame.
1515. The Scottish Field, 598, in Chetham Misc. (1856), II.
| Lo! what it is to be false, | |
| and the finde serve! |
1526. Tindale, Luke viii. 29. He brake the bondes and was caryed of the fende into wildernes.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. vi. 9. Beware the foule Fiend.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 231.
| In counterview within the gates, that now | |
| Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame | |
| Far into Chaos, since the Fiend pass’d through. |
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 99, 3/2.
| But by Drugs of more Force, to botain their curst end, | |
| Than e’er was conceiv’d by the subtil Old Fiend. |
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 64. The fiend is the worst part of the picture; it is not a fiend, but a degraded prosaic human ruffian; we laugh with incredulous contempt at the idea of an angel called down from heaven to overcome such a wretch.
b. In forms of asseveration or execration: † The fiend on thee! The foul fiend! Also Sc. Fient a (crum, etc.), fient ane, haet = ‘Devil, never a one, crumb, whit,’ etc.
a. 1568. A. Scott, Poems (1820), 51. Feind a crum of the scho fawis.
1637. B. Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, II. ii.
| Ear. O, the Feind, and thee! | |
| Gar, take them hence. |
a. 1774. Fergusson, The Rising of the Session, Poems (1845), 29. The fient ane there but pays his score.
1787. Burns, The Twa Dogs, 15.
| But thogh he was o’ high degree, | |
| The fient a pride, nae pride had he. | |
| Ibid., 179. | |
| For the frank, rantin, rambling hillies, | |
| Fient haet o’ them’s ill-hearted fellows. |
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., vi. What the foul fiend can detain the Master so long?
3. An evil spirit generally; a demon, devil, or diabolical being; more fully fiend of hell.
a. 1000. Guthlac, 392 (Gr.). No þær þa feondas ȝefeon þorfton.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 33. Ah a þer is waning and graming and toþen grisbating hunger and þurst and chele and feonda bitinga.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2961. It was on fendes wise wroȝt.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. Prol., 10. Ffreres and feendes been but lyte a-sonder.
c. 1440. Generydes, 2519.
| We wold not dowte to mete them on be on, | |
| But suerly they be fendez euerychone. |
1509. Hawes, The Conversion of Swearers, 24.
| No erthely man loueth you so well | |
| As I do whiche mekely dyde enclyne | |
| For to redeme you from the fendes of hell. |
1605. Camden, Rem., 7. They yellen as fends do in hell.
1694. F. Bragge, Practical Discourses upon the Parables of Our Blessed Saviour, iv. 152. For however sweet Revenge may seem to be to malicious Spirits in the Execution, it must needs make the Mind very uneasie before ’tis executed, and brings great Calamities along with it afterward, and is the most base devillish Temper in the World, and makes a Man a Fiend incarnate.
1738. Wesley, Psalms lvii. 4.
| Among the Sons of Men I dwell, | |
| Fierce as wildest Beasts of Prey, | |
| Inflam’d with Rage like Fiends in Hell, | |
| My Soul they seek to tear and slay. |
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., vi.
| Like one that on a lonesome road | |
| Doth walk in fear and dread, | |
| And having once turned round walks on, | |
| And turns no more his head; | |
| Because he knows, a frightful fiend | |
| Doth close behind him tread. |
1840. Macaulay, Ranke, Ess. (1854), 545/1. As respects a higher power and a future state, man, in the language of Goethe’s scoffing fiend,
| bleibt stets von gleichem Schlag, | |
| Und ist so wunderlich als wie am ersten Tag. |
4. transf. a. A person of superhuman wickedness. (Now only with reference to cruelty or malignity.)
c. 1220. Bestiary, 448.
| For wo so feieð oðer god, | |
| and ðenkeð iuel on his mod, | |
| fox he is and fend iwis. |
c. 1300. Havelok, 2229.
| So þat he with his hend | |
| Ne drop him nouth, þat sor[i] fend. |
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXIII. 58. Freres folweden þat feonde [Antichrist].
c. 1475. Rauf Coilȝear, 891.
| I rid that thow hartfully forsaik thy Mahoun; | |
| Fy on that foull Feind, for fals in thy fay! |
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. vi. 50.
| That cursed man, that cruel feend of hell, | |
| Furor, oh Furor hath me thus bedight: | |
| His deadly wounds within my liuers swell, | |
| And his whot fire burnes in mine entrails bright. |
1799. Campbell, Pleas. Hope, I. 327.
| Where human fiends on midnight errands walk, | |
| And bathe in brains the murderous tomahawk. |
1875. W. S. Hayward, Love agst. World, 45. He is at times a perfect fiend.
b. † A grisly monster (e.g., a dragon) (obs.). Also applied to baleful or destructive influences or agencies personified.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 596.
| It is playnly your purpos to put you to dethe, | |
| With suche fyndes to fight till ye fay worthe. |
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 22.
| Whose corage when the feend [the monster Errour] perceiu’d to shrinke, | |
| She poured forth out of her hellish sinke. |
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 185.
| He calls for Famine, and the meagre fiend | |
| Blows mildew from between his shrivelled lips. |
c. Applied with jocular hyperbole to a person or agency causing mischief or annoyance.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. II. iv. (1845), 545. If you do but stir abroad, these fiends [sc. women; transl. umbræ in Petronius] are ready to meet you at every turn.
1807–8. W. Irving, Salmagundi (1824), 305. It is that fiend Politics, Asem,—that baneful fiend, which bewildereth every brain, and poisons every social feeling.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind., Swinburne’s Tragedies (1871), 162. It is one of the marvels of the human mind, this sorcery which the fiend of technical imitation weaves about his victims, giving a phantasmal Helen to their arms, and making an image of the brain seem substance.
Mod. The autograph-fiend; the cyclist-fiend; the interviewer-fiend; the newsboy-fiend; the organ-fiend.
d. A kind of firework.
1634. J. Bate, Myst. Nat. & Art, II. 75. How to make fiends, or fearefull apparitions.
5. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attrib., as fiend-breed, -face. b. objective, as fiend-compelling, -fraying adjs. c. instrumental, as fiend-begotten, -drawn, -tenanted, -tied adjs. d. originative, as fiend-born adj. e. parasynthetic, as fiend-hearted adj.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., IV. v.
| Not aught that, gleaned from heaven or hell, | |
| Yon *fiend-begotten monk can tell. |
1802. Scott, Thomas the Rhymer, III. 18, in Minstr. Scot. Border, II. 289.
| Brangwain was there, and Segramore, | |
| And *fiend-born Merlin’s gramarye. |
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., II. xiii. (1597), 62.
| Brute … Suppressed so the state | |
| Of all the *Fiend-breed Albinests. |
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), II. 108. Solomon achieved his *fiend-compelling wonders by its aid.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 126. As one checks a *fiend-drawn charioteer.
1879. Browning, Ned Bratts, 56. Horrified, hideous, frank *fiend-faces!
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., xviii. 69. He administring such present and conspicuous Remedies for the Comfort of the Sick, as the *Fiend-fraying Holy-water.
1847. Craig, *Fiendhearted, having a very wicked or depraved heart.
1892. Daily News, 21 Sept., 5/5. Who was grasping his *fiend-tenanted fiddle so firmly by the throat.
1754. Armstrong, Forced Marriage, IV. i., Misc. (1770), II. 80.
| My quick revenge | |
| Shall burst this *fiend-tied most unnatural knot, | |
| And make all villains quake. |
