Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a euph. for damned adv.; thus deuced infernal, very unpleasant.

1804		T.G. Fessenden ‘Country Lovers’ Poems 104: His chin began to quiver, / He said, he felt so deuced droll, / He guess’d he’d lost his liver!
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 41: But to return to BOB’S harangue, / ‘Twas deuced fine – no slum or slang.
1829		Bristol Mercury 7 Apr. 4/1: Rogue, traitor, [...] infidel, ass / Have been kept for some weeks on such deuced hard duty / They’re now, like the one pounds, too tatter’d to pass.
1834		‘The Tinder-Box’ Flash Chaunter 4: It was so deuced hard to open her tinder-box.
1848		G.W.M. Reynolds Mysteries of London II (2nd series) 19: How [...] did you escape after being so deuced well hung as I seed you was with my own eyes?
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 127: If Huz, and Buz, his brother, didn’t do their duty by him, it would be doosid odd.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Mar. 28/1: The Court [...] did not think the brigadier’s conduct dignified, but deuced amusing!
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 270: It’s deuced hard that when a fellow’s really trying to do what he ought, his best friends’ll do nothing but chaff him.
1860		E. Eden Semi-Attached Couple (1979) 145: ‘Deuced unlucky,’ said La Grange, who was learned in vulgar English expletives.
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone I 31: Dooced queer time it must have been, too, and dooced queer fellows.
1861		Hills & Plains I 36: ‘The old ’un [...] is deuced civil all at once’.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 11: Duced good wine, for this country.
1868		H.L. Williams Steel Safe 75: Doosid pretty!
1870		Leeds Mercury 28 July 3/6: Doosid thirsty weather [...] Take a glass at 1d (iced) in the sun; B. and S. to keep pecker up before scrimmage.
1877		Five Years’ Penal Servitude 313: It is strange, deuced strange!
1877		Alnwick Mercury 22 Dec. 3/5: First Swell: I suppose old Plevna was a vewy gweat genewal, else they wouldn’t make such a doosid fuss about him.
1875		Auckland Eve. Star (Supp.) 30 Oct. 6/1: This state of affairs is most doosid unsatisfactory.
1880		G.R. Sims Three Brass Balls 192: It’s such a doosid rum affair.
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 10 May2/1: That was deuced cool of little P.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 81: Starlight told the auctioneer he’d see him at his office, in a deuced high and mighty way.
1890		‘’Arry on [...] the Glorious Twelfth’ Punch 30 Aug. 97/2: This doosid dead-set against Wealth.
1894		Isle of Wight Obs. 25 Aug. 8/1: The weather this summer [...] has been dismal, dark, dreary [...] and deuced disappointing.
1900		Marvel XIV:364 Oct. 1: I shall be deuced obliged to you!
1902		H. Baumann ‘Sl. Ditty’ Londinismen (2nd edn) vi: Tell ye ‘ow? Wy, in rum kens, / In flash cribs and slum dens, / I’ the alleys and courts, / ‘Mong the doocedest sorts.
1911		Gem 23 Sept. iii: ‘Near squeak!’ said the newcomer [...] ‘deuced near thing! Hang it!’.
1919		‘Sapper’ Mufti 235: Just engaged to that fellow bazter [...] Deuced good thing too.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 85: Deuced sorry to wake you up, Jeeves.
1930		E. Waugh Vile Bodies 28: It is all so deuced awkward.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 108: How deuced odd they all are!
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 138: It was a deuced strange luncheon.