Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a parson.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 131: A sartin species of divil-catchers, for the use and behoof of grate men.

(US) a volunteer preacher, without proper qualifications but capable of earnestly quoting what he/she has read in the Bible; thus also adj. devil-chasing.

1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 29: The next man [...] was a devil-chasing soul-saver, a preacher by the name of Mr. Price.
1973		Jim Jones sermon [transcription] I had a Quaker grandmother that could outpray— she was a— the best devil-chaser I ever saw.

1. a clergyman, a preacher; thus an obsessively religious lay person; devil-dodging, n. ostentatious piety; adj. noisily pious.

1791		J. Lackington letter VI Memoirs 45: These devil-dodgers happened to be so very powerful (that is, very noisy,) that they soon sent John home, crying out, he should be damned!
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 10 Feb. 114: Come and stand a drain, my covey, and don’t get reading the humbug, and listening to the patter of that old devil-dodger there.
1840		West Kent Guardian 7 Mar. 4/1: The insertion of the letter [...] would subject us [...] to an action for libel by the ‘Devil-dodger’.
1850		Fast Man 3:1 n.p.: [T]hat heathenish jig (as a certain devil-dodger of my acquaintance has been pleased to denominate the Polka).
1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue.
1863		Story of a Lancashire Thief 10: There’s a gospel-shop in Oxford-road, and it’s a fashionable place. I’ll try my hand there while the devil-dodger is at it.
1873		Siliad 181: For Devils, out and out, thou art not fit, / For Devil-dodgers, just the real grit.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 3/2: The amphibious devil-dodger and soul-saver commenced by saying that he was a ‘hot member,’ who could be very rough on the profane, and that, however much it might look like one, the ceremony was not a pantomime, but a very solemn and blessed affair indeed.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 14 Sept. 5/2: I’ve seen that devil-dodging / Is a mighty paying game .
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 371: I’ve been having a talk with that consumptive-looking devil-dodger.
1894		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 10 Nov. 2/5: They Say [...] The ‘Chinese devil-dodger’ has avowed his love for a winsome young lady.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 168: I never knew a devil-dodger yet who drew back his paw when offered a doubloon.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 31 Jan. 8/2: During a recent hop in the church meeting hall the devil-dodger sprang out of his decorum on hearing a rag-time tune.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 91: The stinkin’ ole devil-dodger.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 17 June 4/8: A down-south paper [...] printed a sermon by the local satandodger.
1910		Truth (Perth) 9 Apr. 8/8: When the devil-dodging wosers / Thinks they’re stamping out the game.
1918		Aussie (France) 8 Oct. 14/2: He was the dinkumest looking devil-dodger ever I’ve seen.
1922		‘Sapper’ Black Gang 385: A brief survey of the devil-dodger’s face might help.
1930		(con. 1910s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 137: I [...] garbed myself in a ‘dog collar’ and silk stock. And behold, I looked like a real ‘devil dodger’.
1933		H. Drake-Brockman Dampier’s Ghost Act I: Maybe Itam could tell us if his devil-dodger was called to the hospital as well.
1948		R. Raven-Hart Canoe in Aus. 64: ‘An’ get an ear-bashin’ from the devil-dodger,’ a friend added.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 58/1: Devil-dodger. A clergyman.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 58: It ’ad enuff snaps of tomfoolery in it to make a devil dodger turn crooked.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 25: Devil Dodgers Clergy.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Devil dodger. Minister of religion.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 55/2: devil dodger n. the prison chaplain.
2021		Betoota-isms 66: Devil Dodger [...] 1. A extremely devout Christian, driven to faith by fear of the devil 2. A sanctimonious old-school Christian who attends a church service more than once a week.

2. one who sometimes attends an Anglican church and sometimes a Quaker meeting.

1860

Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).

a parson.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1869		Manchester Courier 24 Feb. 3/4: A humorous revival preacher introduced a converted costermonger in a South london chapel [...] adding to his name the title of D.D., which he interpreted as ‘Devil Driver’.
1874		Pembs. Herald (Wales) 8 May 4/3: Slang is hard on the parson in various ways. He is known as a ‘devil-driver’ or ‘devil-scolder’.
1882		Glasgow Herald 2 May 6/7: Captain Newton [i.e, of the Salvation Army] who was introduced as the Devil Driver declared that God could not only save the drunkard, but save the devil.

a clergyman.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

a clergyman.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1874		Pembs. Herald (Wales) 8 May 4/3: Slang is hard on the parson in various ways. He is known as a ‘devil-driver’ or ‘devil-scolder’.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Devil-dodger - A clergyman. Also, devil-scolder.
1892		Sheffield Indep. 6 July 5/1: A clergyman is a devil scolder.

(US) a clergyman.

1884		Wkly Chillicothe Crisis (Livingston Co, MO) 24 July 1/8: The Salvation army folks do get strange nicknames [...] ‘Dick the Devil-Teaser’.
1914		G.D. Chase ‘Navy Sl.’ in DN IV: ii 150: devil teaser, n. Chaplain.

the four of clubs, considered to be unlucky.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1879		J.C.J. in N&Q Ser. 5 XII 473: In London I have always heard the four of clubs called the devil’s bedpost, and also that it is the worst turn-up one could have [F&H].
1888		Jersey Indep. 14 Jan. 7/4: No one can tell why sailors should have dubbed the four of clubs ‘the devil’s bed-post’.
1893		Dly Bulletin (Hololulu) 21 Mar. 4/3: The sailors knew the four of clubs as the ‘Devil’s Bedposts’.
1898		Princeton Union (MN) 20 Jan. 7/6: Sailoirs call the four of clubs the ’devil’s bedposts’.
1908		Sun (NY) 1 Mar. 31/6: What are the nicknames for the ace and four of clubs? [...] The first is puppyfoot, the second is the devil’s bedposts.
1908		Bucks Herald 4 Jan. 7/3: The four of clubs is called ‘the Devil’s bed-posts’.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks.

dice.

1664		Etherege Love In A Tub II ii: I do not understand Dice: I understand good Pasture and drink --- Hang the Devil’s bones.
1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 70: The Devil is i’th’ dice.
1701		N. Ward ‘A Walk to Islington’ in Writings (1704) 69: The Children of Fortune / [...] / Who bred to no Bus’ness, but train’d up in Evil, / Are cunning in hustling the Bones of the Devil.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:5 15: Thus some with merry Cracks were taling, / Others the Devil’s Ribs.
1709		N. Ward Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 113: So cunning Gamesters, Satan’s Sons, / Recover by the Devil’s Bones.
1725		N. Ward Amorous Bugbears 15: The Groom-Porter’s Deputy stood hussling the Devil’s Bones in a Box.
1822		(con. early 17C) Sir W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 24: Tell the accusing spirit [...] that if thine ears have heard the clatter of the devil’s bones, thy hand hath not trowled them.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

the legal profession.

c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. xxiii: 🌐 While he was endeavoring to give some account of himself to the Bench various members of the Devil’s Brigade put in clients’ claims, amounting in the aggregate to something like £600.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Sept. 1/1: The prospect of another appeal in the Spencer case is delighting the Devil’s Brigade [...] the case will cost £100,000 [...] and the barristerial gentry will bag the greater part of the boodle.

the number 13.

a.1796		‘For A’ That and A’ That’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) II 265: The deevil’s dozen Donald drew, / And Donald gied her a’ that.
1831		Blackwood’s Mag. XXX. 343/2: Instead of one kick, he deserves and gets a devil’s dozen .
1873		J. Mair Hbk of Phrases 14: Devil’s Dozen. Thirteen.
1887		Fort Worth Dly Gaz. (TX) 15 May 2/3: ‘Baker’s dozen’ was originally called the ‘Devil’s dozen’ from the fact that thirteen witches were supposed to sit down at the great meetings of his satanic majesty.
1896		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 23 May 6/6: in Old England 13 was called the ‘devil’s dozen’.
1908		Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 18 Mar. 2/6: The Sheriff asked him if he could count the length of thirteen? Mr Agnew said it was the devil’s dozen.
1920		Jasper News (MO) 27 May 5/5: The saying ‘devil’s dozen’ m,eans the same as ‘baker’s dozern’. It connotes [...] 13 loaves of bread instead of twelve.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.

the four of clubs.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 302/2: from ca. 1835.

a pack of playing cards.

1729		Swift Intelligencer (2nd edn) 4 43: Cards are the devil’s own invention, for which reason, time out of mind they are and have been called the devil’s books.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 86: Damn your Cards, said he, they are the Devil’s Books.
1786		Burns Twa Dogs in Works (1842) 65/2: They sip the scandal potion pretty; Or lee-lang nights, wi’ crabbit leuks / Pore owre the devil’s pictur’d beuks.
1795		Sporting Mag. Nov. VII 90/2: [heading] Pack of Cards spiritualized; or, the Consecration of the Devil’s Books.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1839		Thackeray ‘Capt. Rook and Mr. Pigeon’ in Works III (1898) 500: I often think that the devil’s books, as cards are called, are let out to us from Old Nick’s circulating library.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1863		T. Taylor Ticket-Of-Leave Man Act IV: Sam Willoughby in this place, and over the devil’s books, too.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Devil’s Books - Playing cards (Presbyterian).
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Sept. 13/2: In a betting case tried in the Tamworth (N.S.W.) Court, the Bench of magistrates, one and all, professed that they did not know the meaning of a ‘right bower,’ or ‘The Devil’s Prayer Book.’ Sweet innocents.
1890		J.K. Van Rensselaer [bk title] The Devil’s Picture Books, a History of Playing Cards.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 23: Devil’s Book, a pack of cards.
1898		Belfast News-Letter 11 Apr. 6/5: The familiar ‘devil’s books’ for playing cards smacks of Puritan origin.
1903		Sun (NY) 10 May 37/2: The old-time prejudice against the devil’s picture book was strong in my family, but I held on to that pack with grim determination.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 102: Some iv th’ wretches were playin’ cards, properly called th’ Divvle’s Bible.
1916		Eve. World (NY) 16 Nov. 18/7: Many antions claim the questionable honor of the invention of ‘the Devil’s picture books’ as the Puritans of New England delight to call them.
1964		A. Wykes Illus. Guide to Gambling 161: Some old shipmasters won’t allow ‘the devil’s picture-books’ aboard; or, if they do, they'll have them thrown overboard at the slightest indication that anything is going wrong.

a pack of playing cards.

1927

W.E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 31: My father [...] jocularly referred to the cards as the Devil’s picture-gallery.

a pack of playing cards.

1913

D.H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers i. 20: Morel never in his life played cards, [...] ‘the devil’s pictures’, he called them!

a pack of playing cards.

1875		Essex Standard 23 Apr. 8/3: Dissenters and others [...] think dancing sinful, and cards ‘devil’s playthings’.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1938		Yorks Eve. Post 19 Oct. 12/4: He was once stopped from performing a card trick [...] by a member of the church, who held that cards were ‘the devil’s playthings’.

see devil’s bones

dice.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

whisky.

1870		Mercury (Hubart) 23 Apr. 2/5: [from the Stranraer Free Press] [...] soul destroyer, hell broth, devil’s brew .
1898		Liverpool Echo 7 Apr. 4/5: ‘Donnybrook’ Whisky. A veritable devil’s brew.
1944		Gloucs. Echo 13 July 4/1: ‘Devil’s Brew’ Fined £25 [...] for being in possession of ‘whisky’ in the preparation of which methylic alcohol was used.
1947		R. Goffin Horn of Plenty 84: How ’bout a shot of devil’s brew?
1979		W. Poley Alcoholism: A Treatment Manual 14: If, when you say whiskey, you mean that devil’s brew, the poison spirit, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home and creates misery, poverty, yes, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children, [...] then I am certainly against it with all of my heart!
2002		WJHL.com 13 June 🌐 Ever see the movie ‘Thunder Road’? [...] it’s the theme song that stands out in my mind [...] ‘Thunder was his engine, and white lightnin’ was his load....It was moonshine, moonshine to quench the devil’s thirst, the law they swore they’d get him, but the devil got him first.’ Sort of an ode to the illegality of making and transporting the ‘devil’s brew’.

(US) whisky.

1863		‘Edmund Kirke’ Southern Friends 49: The latter region [...] was absolutely packed with thirsty natives, imbibing certain fluids known at the South as ‘blue ruin,’ ‘bust-head,’ [...] and ‘devil’s dye,’ at the rate of a ‘bit’ a glass.
1871		Perrysburg Jrnl (OH) 10 Nov. 2/3: He proved that rum and whisky and the like was the ‘Devil’s dye stuff’.

see eyewater under eye n.

a strong alcoholic drink.

1700

N. Ward The Rambling Rakes 13: Tyr’d with the Day’s Fatigue, and my Brains over-burthen’d with the stupifying fumes of our Fiery Devils-Piss, I fell fast a Sleep.

(Aus.) a variety of alcoholic drink.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 12/2: A dramatic company is playing ‘Shout, or the Devil’s Nobbler,’ throughout the Victorian provinces – ‘with all the original Melbourne effects.’ Does this mean that the Melbourne effects upon the audience, or are we to understand that the players exhibit the usual effects of ‘Devil’s nobblers?’.

(W.I.) white rum.

1981

N. Farki Countryman Karl Black 9: A glass with a little ‘devil soup’ dangling in the bottom.

(UK Und.) brandy.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

champagne.

2008

Radio 4 News 18 Sept. [BBC radio] The City boys [...] use of devil’s urine and devil’s dandruff.

(drugs) crack cocaine; methamphetamine.

1981		J. Wambaugh Glitter Dome (1982) 261: Beware the devil’s dandruff, he heard an actress warn.
1999		Indep. on Sun. 25 July 24: Doing rather too much Devil’s dandruff.
2000		J. Baker Chinese Girl (2001) 12: There was never a day went by when you couldn’t score on the inside. Angel dust, Devil’s dandruff, Hessle or Herb.
2008		Radio 4 News 18 Sept. [BBC radio] The City boys [...] use of devil’s urine and devil’s dandruff.
2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 71: A former meth addict [...] on a call-in show taking about Satan’s Dandruff and how he ‘turned his life around’ with the Lord.
2018		‘Aidan Truhen’ Price You Pay 210: [He] does demolition likewise pepped on the Devil’s Dandruff.

(US black) a pipe for smoking crack cocaine.

1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 25: She decides to smoke her pipe as is. ‘My friend calls the pipe the devil’s dick, because the more you smoke the more you want,’ she says.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 7: Devil’s dick — Crack pipe.

see separate entry.

(US drugs) marijuana.

2024

D. Rucker Life’s Too Short 132: I’m not into the Devil’s Lettuce even though here [i.e. Amsterdam] you find the highest-quality weed in Europe.

the US Marines.

1918		letter in K.F. Cowing Dear Folks at Home (1919) 203: ‘They’re Americans!’ and ‘Teufelhunden!’ (devil dogs). That’s what they call the Marines down at Verdun.
1918		Eve. World (NY) 6 Aug. 6/6: [USMC recruitment advert] ‘Devil Dogs!’ ‘Look out for the American Devil Dogs!’.
1922		N.Y. Tribune 2 July 3/1: Roosevelt and other members [...] gather [...] to review five thousand of Uncle Sam’s ‘Devil Dogs’.
1931		I. Franklyn Knights of the Cockpit 3: Considered the best flyer in the Marine Corps, tales of his courage and daring were recounted over and over again by Devil Dogs throughout the world.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 574: The term devil-dogs, often applied to the Marines during the World War, was supposed to be a translation of the German teufelhunde.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 42: You’re a marine, a two-fisted, hard-drinking, steel-chewing, hell-roaring leatherneck of a devil-dog.
1961		G.L. Coon Meanwhile, Back at the Front 131: Sterling stuff, these devil dogs.
1979		G. Hasford Short-Timers (1980) 13: At Belleau Wood the Marines were so vicious that the German infantrymen called them Teufel-Hunden – ‘devil dogs.’.
1984		E.M. Hammel Root 134: The others punctuated the epithet with a solid ‘Oorah’ Devildog grunt.

the contraction of the vaginal muscles around the penis during intercourse.

1753		in Order of the Beggar's Benison and Merryland (1892) 53: Some women have such an effect upon men as to make the penis swell largely immediately before the ejection of the semen, the inner labia [...] pressing the penis. From the intensity pf the pleasure this has been termed ‘the Coynte-grip’ or ‘the devil’s bite’.
1879		‘Sub-Umbra, or Sport among the She-Noodles’ in Pearl 4 Oct. 3: She [...] rested for a moment to indulge in the exquisite pleasure of the devil’s bite, which she seemed to possess to a most precocious extent, the folds of her cunt contracting and throbbing upon my swelling prick in the most delicious manner.

(US) a violin.

1976		N.Y. Folklore II 240: Devil’s box [...] is a common synonym for fiddle.
1997		Charles Wolfe Devil’s Box: Masters of Southern Fiddling n.p.: They called the instrument ‘the devil’s box’ because some thought it was sinful to play one.

(UK prison) orig. used by customs to mark a seized vessel, then a synon. for the ‘broad arrow’ marking on convict clothes.

1843		Worcs. Herald Supp. 14 Oct. 5: The exciseman came put his broad arrow upon it, which you call the devil’s claw (laughter).
1844		Wilts. Indep. 29 Feb. 4/6: It was said at the sea ports, when a vessel was seized the custom-house authorities, she was marked by a broad arrow; and this was called, in the cant the ports, the devil’s claw.
1890		Jarrow Exp. 17 Oct. 7/5: A Scotch cap; worsted stockings, and a pair of shoes, completed the uniform of a full private in Her Majesty's Convict Service. This uniform was decorated all over with the ‘devil’s claws’ (the broad arrow), .
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

black and yellow; also plain black (see cite 1899).

c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1853		Tuam Herald 18 June 2/3: [H]irelings who [...] tauntingly exhibited placards in colours popularly known the Devil’s livery, of black and yellow.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict. 143: Devil’s livery black and yellow. From the mourning and quarantine uses of the colours.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 3: Devil’s-livery - Quarantine yellow and black.
1899		Bristol Mercury 5 Apr. 8/5: Among many eccentricities, Mr Fitzhugh entertained a rooted dislike to black clothes, called them ‘the devil’s livery,’ and would not be prevailed upon to wear anything black.

a row, a fuss; thus kick up/play the devil’s delight, to have a rowdy argument or make a disturbance.

1822		Morn. Chron. (London) 18 Mar. 3/4: ARBUTHNOT is all in a bustle, / And has written his friends to invite; / Saying Normanby, Creevey and Russell / Are playing the devil's delight.
1826		Universal Songster II 418/1: Ere she proved herself a termagant quite, And kicked up with Dick the Devil’s delight.
1835		‘Billy Bighead’ in Cove in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 227: She kick’d up the devil’s delight, / And call’d him a brute and a bag o’ bone.
1837		Poughkeepsie Casket II 37/3: You can’t go on a spree; for when you come home, missus kicks up the devil's delight.
1854		G.J. Whyte-Melville General Bounce (1865) 175: His wives [...] was yowlin’, and cryin’, and kickin’ up the devil’s delight.
1858		G. Thompson Gay Girls of N.Y. 21: Disorder reigned supreme, and the ‘Devil’s Delight’ was kicked up generally.
1873		Sl. Dict. 142: Devil’s delight a noise or row of any description. Generally used thus: ? ‘They kicked up the devil’s delight’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 23: Devil’s Delight, a row of any kind.
1897		Mt Sterling Advocate (KY) 1 June 5/6: The gurgling of the faucet is the devil’s delight.
1947		Aberdeen Jrnl 7 June 1/5: He knew of a dance hall where a nuisance was created because the dancers ‘kicked up the devil’s delight’.

midnight; the small hours .

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1996		R. Dooling Blue Streak 125: I woke up there the other night at two in the morning, the Devil’s dinner hour.

(US) the clitoris.

2005		Urban Dict. 17 Feb. 🌐 Mum: Your Dad rung the devils doorbell last night.
2012		Urban Doct. 22 May 🌐 Samantha: You look tired today! Melissa: I know, I was up all night ringing the Devil’s Doorbell.
2022		Twitter 30 Sept. 🌐 The clitoris is not meant for self pleasure [...] That’s the devil’s doorbell and if you keep pressing it soon enough he will answer.

asafoetida (Ferula assa-foetida).

1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 III i: The Divels dung in thy teeth.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 258: The devil’s dung, which he had so plentifully crammed into the roasted fowls.
1759–67		Sterne Tristram Shandy (1949) 521: ’Tis all pepper, garlick, staragen, salt, and devil’s dung – by the great arch cook of cooks.
1804		C.K. Sharpe Correspondence (1888) I 203: I devoured loads of devil’s dung rounded into pills.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1865		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 12 Aug. 7/4: That which we call the devil’s-dung by any other name would stink as bad.
1887		Aberdeen Jrnl 11 Aug. 7/1: Carlyle [...] he calls ‘Diogenes Devil’s-dung’.

see separate entry.

see hell’s front porch under hell n.

a surveyor’s chain; note Shakespear Dict. Hindustani & Eng. (1820) shaitan ki ant, The devil’s guts, any thing very long and winding) .

1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 72: The Devils guts, i.e. The surveyours chain.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Devil’s guts, a surveyor’s chain, so called by farmers, who do not like their land should be measured by their landlords.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

1. a rough or unworkable piece of land.

1847		Edgefield Advertiser (SC) 28 Apr. 1/1: ‘Shamrock Mountain’ is a large space [...] barren of tree or shrub [...] ’tis called the ‘Devil’s Half Acre’.
1871		Bloomfield Times (PA) 15 Aug. 5/4: From one little piece of land in Spring township, called the ‘devil’s half-acre’, Mr David Fry raised [...] 15 bushels of oats.
1910		Buffalo Eve. News (NY) 27 July 31/1: All had a close call from a watery grave in the Devil' Half Acre.
1968–9		in DARE.
2012		Central N.J. Home News (New Brunswick, NJ) 5 Feb. 24/6: I did a two-hour [...] walk to the Devil’s Half-Acre boulder field.

2. (also devil’s acre) the rough or ‘red light’ area of a town.

1837		A. Sherwood Gazetteer of GA 175: Devil's Half Acre, is in Putnam, 10 miles SW Eatonton, 12 Monticello ; contains 3 houses, dram shop, 2 shops, and PO called Sanford's X Roads. A half acre of land was purchased here in the first settlement of the country, [...] it became the theatre of so much vice that the distinctive name above was given it.
1840		Civilian & Teleg. (Cumberland, MD) 4 Oct. 3/1: Their meeting [...] came off in the Devil’s Half Acre.
1868		Sportsman 5 Mar. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [C]ertain public-houses within hail of that Devil’s Acre, Leicester-square [...] are filled with thieves and prostitutes [...] tawdry ‘gay women,’ their sallow, low-browed fancy men, and the snake-headed young thieves who haunt our West End thoroughfares.
1872		Clearfield Republican (PA) 6 Nov. 2/4: ‘The Devil’s half-acre’ [...] is so full of pugilism bad rum and worse women that even the Clintorn Republican revolts at it.
1873		New Northwest (Portland, OR) 7 Mar. 2/4: A lady [...] who has lived for nearly a quarter of a century in [...] a place once denominated by a disgusted individual, as the ‘Devil’s half-acre’.
1881		Interior Jrnl (Stanford, KY) 4 Feb. 1/4: Curious Kentucky town nomenclature [...] ‘Devil’s Den’ and ‘Hell’s Halfacre’ in Spencer.
1890		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 30 Aug. 10/5: ‘Hell’s Bottom’ and ‘Devil’s Half-Acre’ [...] sections of the city are beginning to lose their identities.
1900		Glasgow Herald 4 Oct. 3/8: The wild and lawless people of ‘The Devil's Half Acre’.
1912		Escanaba Morn. Press (MI) 17 Aug. 2/3: Police will swoop down [on] twenty-five cent ‘flophouses’ in the ‘Devil’s Half Acre’.
1924		Overland Mthly 1 Jan. 198/2: He had graduated from th Devil’s Half Acre before the Duke reigned there with his ragged band.
1934		News Jrnl (Wilmington, DE) 10 May 14/2: [pic. caption] ‘Devil’s Half Acre’ is being evacuated according to police orders [...] a typical shanty [...] is home for someone.
1955		(ref. to mid-19C) G.E. Shankle Amer. Nicknames 125/1: During the middle decades of the nineteenth century the slum section of Augusta, Me., was termed the Devil's Half Acre because it was inhabited chiefly by people of questionable character.
1959		W.L. McAtee Oddments 10: Devil’s Half-acre-Area between Hillsboro Street and Airport Road, once used by bootleggers [DARE].
1972		letter in N.Y. Times n.p.: My town in Maine has ‘The Devil’s HalfAcre’ – now shortened to ‘The Acre’ – so named because the residents of that little area fought so consistently in years past [DARE].
1975		J. Gould Maine Lingo 72: Devil’s Half Acre – That part of old Bangor where choppers and river drivers disported. The vicinity of lower Exchange Street, now re-urbanized.
1996		Irish Times 2 July n.p.: Dublin Castle – or the Devil’s Half Acre as Michael Collins once called it – has undergone some £10 million worth of structural development .

generic for lawyers as a profession.

1895		Truth (Sydney) 2 June 1/3: Among the batch of ‘Devil’s Own’ admitted to the rank of solicitors and proctors yesterday [etc.].
1896		Regiment 27 June 203/2: The ‘Devil’s Own,’ which once consisted of the limbs of the law, is a very crack corps.

see devil’s colours

the hangman’s noose; often ext. with ...on the way to Redriffe.

1873		W. Rendle Old Southwark 302: The Devil’s neckerchief would seem to be euphemistic, or slang, for the gallows, or the rope.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 303/1: ca. 1810–60.

(Aus.) a snake.

1900

Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Apr. 14/3: I had just concluded, after a long wait, that it was a billet for Job to tackle, when suddenly the ‘devil’s necklace’ appeared, and seeing his reflection in the glass, thought, I suppose, it was his old woman, rushed forward to welcome her, and met his fate.

prisoners.

1850		Carlyle q. in Lit. Gaz. 2 Mar. 156/3: This beautiful Establishment, or Oasis of Purity intended for the Devil’s regiments of the line .
1857		Melville Confidence Man Ch. xix: He belongs to the Devil’s regiment; and I have a great mind to expose him.
1867		H.B. Sprague Hist. of the 13th Infantry Regt of Conn. Volunteers 54: Deserters from the Confederate army, deserters from the Union army, foreign rogues from the four quarters of the world, gamblers, ‘fancy men,’ thieves, cut-throats – all extent banded together, and forming a sort of ‘Devil’s regiment of the line’.
1868		Gravesend Reporter 14 Mar. 8/1: Others, however, enlist boldly in the devil’s regiment, and swagger under his colours [...] Blueskins, Dick Turpins, Sheppards, and the whole ill-favoured progeny.
1875		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 18 Sept. 12/2: Mixed with the main army of sightseers there are at least a few thousand who belong of right to those forces which Carlyle terms ‘the Devil’s Regiment of the Line’.
1881		Dundee Advertiser 1 Oct. 5/1: The ‘Devil’s regiment of the line’ unfortunately never scarce of recruits or seasoned veterans. It is because of this that we are compelled keep an elaborate police and prison system.
1892		Salisbury Times 9 Dec. 3/1: [headline] ‘THE DEVIL’S REGIMENT OF THE LINE.’ There is ragged fringe round society, woven, though may be, with and gold, which makes us shudder when think of it, and it always will be so. There will always be some in this race of life, either from merited or unmerited misfortune, who will be left behind, and if left behind, and unassisted will be submerged .
1908		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 10 Jan. 2/5: IN THE DEVIL’S REGIMENT. Breaking into Cellars. Robert Watt (17), Charles Andrews (15), and Walter Mackie (16), all millworkers [...] were next placed at the bar.
1911		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 27 Jan. 3/3: The Sheriff —You appear to be qualifying for what Carlyle calls ‘the devil’s regiment of the line’ —a contemptible squad. One hundred years ago or even less you would have been hanged for your behaviour.

spring weather, esp. the alternating sun and showers of a ‘typical’ April.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

1. the tapping of one’s fingers or feet, often through boredom or irritation.

1755		J. Kidgell Card I 61: Down she set herself, Sukey, in an easy Chair, sighing and complaining with insinite Discomposure, beating the Devil's Tattoo with her Foot upon the Frame of a Table incessantly for two Hours.
1775		London Mag. Oct. 496/2: This distinction [...] threw the grandees into every nervous sensation; fans fluttered, heads tossed, and every toe beat the devil's tattoo.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: The devil’s tattoo; beating with one’s foot against the ground, as done by persons in low spirits.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1817		Sir W. Scott Search after Happiness in The Sale-Room V 1 Feb. xv: His sugar-loaves and bales about he threw, And on his counter beat the Devil’s tattoo.
1827		R.B. Peake Comfortable Lodgings I i: Play the devil’s tattoo with your stick, like a selfish old crab you are.
1837		R. Barham Ingoldsby Legends (1862) 181: Her tears had ceased; but her eyes were cast down, and mournfully fixed upon her delicate little foot, which was beating the devil’s tattoo.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair II 354: Lord Steyne made no reply except by beating the devil’s tattoo, and biting his nails.
1841		Flash (NY) 3 Oct. n.p.: Playing the devil’s tattoo with a mallet on a board.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes II 115: They set to work on the seams of the deck, commencing and keeping up a devil’s tattoo that would have awakened the seven sleepers.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 277: Beating the devil's tattoo upon the table to keep himself awake.
1862		Thackeray Adventures of Philip (1899) 608: The other made me far from comfortable by performing a tattoo on my chair.
1863		T. Moser Mahoe Leaves 54: Parnapa proceeded to beat the ‘devil’s tattoo’ upon his iron pot.
1876		Besant & Rice Golden Butterfly I 255: Joseph beat the tattoo on his chair.
1883		Bristol Magpie 12 May 7/2: [She] falls into chair, plays devil’s tattoo on floor with feet, shrieks herself into a fit.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 10 May2/3: The third [...] beating the Old Gentleman’s tattoo with his fingers upon the window-pane.
1892		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 25 Sept. 11/1: Up went her hind legs to annihilate me, and she played a most marvellous ‘devil’s tattoo’ in the air.
1901		Boy’s Own Paper 13 Apr. 434: The floating ice, which for many days kept playing ‘the devil’s tattoo’ against the ship’s sides with the out-going and the in-coming of the tide.
1916		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 8 Feb. 7/4: The district attorney stood at the window [...] one nervous hand beats a devil’s tattoo against the somewhat grimy pane.
1923		M. Garahan Stiffs 300: My brain took fast hold of that ‘go low’ and played a devil’s tattoo with the phrase.
1927		C. Coe Me – Gangster 92: I heard the neck of the bottle play a tattoo on the rim of his glass.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 20: The rain beat a devil’s own tattoo on the byre roof.

2. a violent assault.

1824		Annals of Sporting 1 Mar. 200/1: [He] went in search of his ivory-box, which he found, and beat the devil’s tattoo on it.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 15 Feb. 2/7: Having, by force of arms and agility of legs, beat the devil’s tattoo upon the precious body of his unfortunate better half.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 27 Sept. 6/3: The devil’s tattoo was scored on mouth, nose, chin, brow, and body with both hands.
1936		T. O’Reilly Tiger of the Legion 22: Hard, bony little fists [...] played the very devil’s tattoo on my ribs .

(US) threeway sex between two men and one woman.

1983		B.M. Kavanagh High School Yr Bk 🌐 Devil’s Triangle; Down Geezer, Easy, Spike.
2018		/www.vox.com 27 Sept. 🌐 Kavanaugh was also asked about the meaning of the phrase ‘Devil’s Triangle’ — which many believe refers to sex between two men and one woman, but which Kavanaugh said was a drinking game akin to Quart.

an argument, a row.

1805		Morn. Chron. (London) 16 Aug. 3/2: Riot at the Haymarket Theatre or, The Devil Among the Tailors [...] The utmost noise and confusion prevailed in the house until nine o’clock, as the rioters would not suffer a syllable to be heard.
1835		Chester Chron. 5 June 3/1: Our contemporary has played ‘the Devil among the tailors’ — As these fractional parts of humanity [...] are very ugly customers.
1843		Northern Star 24 June 13/3: The ‘Devil Among the Tailors’ Jew v. Gentile [...] The affair originated in certain disputes between Mr Hyam and the journeyman tailors.
1876		Sheffield Indep. 4 Mar. 7/3: ‘An Old Tea Merchant’ who has not heard the old story of the Devil among the Tailors! [...] seems to have got among the grocers of Sheffield.
1915		Sports Argus 4 Dec. 2/1: [headline] Hull City Play Devil-Aming-the-Tailors with Midland Crackerjacks.
1921		Western Dly Press 21 June 4/7: When defendant had signed the contract he said, ‘I know I’ve put the devil among the tailors now’.

see hell beating tanbark under hell n.

see blue devil n.¹

(Aus.) a small unleavened loaf hastily baked in hot ashes.

1862		A. Polehampton Kangaroo Land 76: Instead of damper we occasionally made what is colonially known as ‘devils on the coals.’ [...] They are made about the size of a captain’s biscuit, and as thin as possible, thrown on the embers and turned quickly with the hand.
1888		Blackwood’s Mag. 144 715/1: Now I’ll boil the billet, make some tea, and cook you some devils on the coals.
1900		Western Champion (Barcaldine) 28 Aug. 3/3: He had laughed me to scorn for drinking tea with milk, and had been unsympathetically mirthful over my ineffectual effort to make ‘damper’, or the tasty ‘devils on the coals.’ [AND].
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 58: DEVIL-ON-THE-COALS bush a variant of Johnny-cake or ‘bugger-on-the-coals’.
1903		H. Taunton Australind 45: By the time the water had boiled [...] the ‘devils-on-the-coals’ had been cooked.
1908		G. Seagram Bushman All 94: The grilled chops and ‘beggars-on-the-coals’.
1909		E. Waltham Life and Labour in Aus. 36: Bush fare in the shape of ‘damper,’ ‘dough boys,’ and ‘beggars on the coals’.

see go like hell under hell n.

see under marry v.

to have sexual intercourse.

1616		N. Breton Good and the Badde in Works II 13: [She] is partly a Chyrurgion, but most for the allaying of swelling in the lower parts, and hath commonly a charme to coniure the diuell into hell.
a.1700		‘The Lusty Friar of Dublin’ in Pepys Ballads (1987) III 43: [She] would often presume, To suffer this bald-pated Fryar, to put his old Pope into Rom. [Ibid.] IV 138: [They have] put Pope into Rome, and made them the Cuckolds of Branford.
[1733		Laugh and Be Fat 89: No sooner had he found that she had burnt his Pope, but he presently concluded [...] that instead of a Maiden-head, she had given him for his Five Guineas, a confounded Clap].
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 95: Diable, m. The penis; to put the devil into hell (Boccaccio) = to copulate.
1925		E. Field ‘A French Crisis’ in Facetiae Americana 19: And with a Holy Father, put the Devil into hell.
1980		Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 183: A lot of the fun of sexual activity lies in its forbidden nature [...] Examples occur in such phrases as putting the Devil into Hell (= intromission).
1999		D. Lypchuk ‘A dirty little story’ in eye mag. 8 July 🌐 They put the devil into hell but she was disappointed because it was a bit of a jiffy pop.

see under sure as... phr.

see under arse n.

(Irish) a mild excl.

1827		Monthly Rev. V 585: ‘The devil's cure to you!’ said Skelton, instantly firing his second pistol.
1844		Irish State Trials 225: Have you the expression ‘The devil’s cure to Saunders’ in that report? No.
1925		L. Mackay Mourne Folk 107: The stone struck Denis and he gave a great yell. ‘Divil’s cure t’ye,’ sis I.
1946		F. O’Connor Sel. Stories 59: When Michael John Cronin stole the funds of the Carricknabreena Hurling, Football and Temperance Association, [...] everyone said: ‘Devil’s cure to him!’ .

see get to hell (out of...)! under hell n.