devilishness
- noun
- /ˈdɛvəlɪʃnəs/
:
diablura
- A touch of devilishness in his personality made him all the more charming.
Examples
-
I gotta tell you, man, for a minute there, I didn't think I'd make it through all that devilishness.
-
Standing all covered with God's good dirt and all the devilishness sweated out you.
-
Dr. Frankl's small stature, neat suit, and thick, dark-framed glasses were overwhelmed by the warmth of his welcome and the devilishness of his smile.
Academic text (1999) -
His devilishness was evident when he played pranks on his friends during the party.
-
The child's devilishness made it hard for his parents to keep a straight face.
Synonyms
28
5.2
A state of being morally wrong or evil
8
6.5
A quality of doing very bad things and wanting to harm people
1
8.8
Behaviour that harms people or tricks them, sometimes as a prank
1
2.5
The quality of being naughty or misbehaving
1
9.7
Bad behavior meant to annoy or hurt people
1
7.9
Playful mischief that teases or annoys other people
1
4.6
Playful actions that cause small harmless trouble for fun
1
8.4
Very cruel and evil actions that harm people
1
9.6
Very evil behaviour that harms other people
Being very bad and cruel to other people
Antonyms
How Mischievous
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Devilishness comes from the familiar word devil plus the endings -ish (meaning 'like') and -ness (meaning 'state' or 'quality'). So devilishness literally means the 'quality of being like a devil', which helps explain its modern sense of playful mischief or wicked behaviour.