to bedevil
2
8.2
- verb
- /bɪˈdɛvəl/
:
atormentar
- Financial troubles continue to bedevil the small business, making it hard to stay afloat.
- continue to bedevil
- problems that bedevil
From Bloom's reporting, they are the raw, bedeviling forces that drove him, he explains, to contemplate suicide.
- From Bloom's reporting, they are the raw, bedeviling forces that drove him, he explains, to contemplate suicide.
- There comes a point in the essay where Friedrich Nietzsche is going to ask this age-old question, one that has bedeviled so many people.
- You know, this is a, a, a problem which has been bedeviling the United States since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Examples
-
Both Doha and the TPA were very close calls, and the domestic legislative battle left partisan wounds that may bedevil U.S. trade policy into the future.
Academic text (2002) -
And although ethnic tensions continue to bedevil Bosnia, its future, like Montenegro's, will be little affected by Kosovo's ultimate political status or boundaries.
Academic text (2005) -
The lack of power continued to bedevil efforts to address the damage.
Blog text (30) -
The issue of color continues to bedevil our intragroup relations.
Academic text (1994) -
But 19 are, in some measure, ethnic conflicts; the worst being the wars that continue to bedevil central Africa.
Academic text (2006) -
For the rest of the 1990s, the end of bipolarity and the Cold War will surely continue to bedevil Europe.
Academic text (1993) -
Unless South Africans tackle the problems that bedevil their schools, the youth will continue to disregard the "back to school" call.
Academic text (1991) -
Growing protests by disaffected political, economic, religious, and ethnic groups, especially in the countryside, continue to bedevil the Communist government.
Academic text (2015) -
Floods and snowstorms bedevil parts of the country that historically never experienced them, or their severity.
Blog text (24) -
Advocates of policy change, their funders, and well-meaning pundits regularly bemoan the ideological stiffening that bedevils efforts at bipartisan cooperation.
Blog text (4)
Synonyms
268
4.9
To keep appearing in someone's mind and cause worry
153
2.5
Make someone feel deeply worried or upset
121
5.6
To cause constant trouble and suffering to people and things
85
3.7
To annoy someone by bothering them repeatedly
47
4.4
To bother someone again and again
10
8.0
To continue to make someone feel angry or hurt
2
8.6
To trouble or annoy someone again and again
To annoy someone again and again with small problems
To cause someone a little trouble or discomfort
To bother someone by causing them trouble or discomfort
Antonyms
How Troubling
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word bedevil comes from the prefix be- and the word devil, so it originally meant 'make like a devil' or 'be troubled by a devil'. Think of a small, persistent problem 'attacking' a project like a devil, and you will see why bedevil means to cause ongoing trouble or confusion.