v.; also 6 beedivel. [f. BE- 5, 6 + DEVIL.]
1. To treat diabolically, with diabolical violence, ribaldry or abuse.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ. (1775), I. 34. He had been … bedevil’d … at every stage he had come at.
1809. Byron, Eng. Bards & Sc. Rev. (ed. 2), Postscr. My poor … Muse … they have … so be-deviled with their … ribaldry.
2. To ‘possess’ with, or as with, a devil.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. iii. One age, he is hagridden, bewitched; the next, priestridden, befooled; in all ages, bedevilled.
1862. Thackeray, Four Georges, i. 45. People who have to deal with her are charmed, and fascinated, and bedeviled.
3. To drive frantic, to bewilder with worry; to torment, worry, ‘bother.’
1823. T. Moore, Fables, Holy Alliance, Fab. 2. 107. 549. Satires at the Court they levelled … That soon, in short, they quite bedevilled Their Majesties and Royal Highnesses.
1878. P. Bayne, Pur. Rev., vi. 230. He did so dazzle and bewilder and bedevil the poor man.
4. To ‘play the devil with’; to transform mischievously or bewilderingly, to corrupt, spoil, confound or muddle.
1800. Edin. Rev., IX. 108. A room and furniture ‘bedeviled’ by taste.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. 273. So bedevil a bottle of Geisenheim … you wouldn’t know it from the greenest Tokay. Ibid. (1844), Coningsby, IV. v. 129. The country attorneys … had so bedevilled the registration.
1851. Kingsley, Yeast, ix. 186. To bedevil, by the light of those very already dimmed eyes, the objects around.
5. To bring into the condition of a devil.
1862. J. Brown, Horae Subs., 219. [Art] cannot regenerate, neither can it … bedevil mankind.
6. To call devil, stigmatize as a devil.
