1822 London Lit. Gaz. 7 Dec. 778/3 Better play no longer at Devil-dodging, or the Old Serpent perchance may lay hold of you by the tail!

1861 F. W. Robinson Under the Spell III. 111 So you have taken to ‘devil-dodging’, sermonizing, or whatever you call it.

1948 Freedom & Union Nov. 15/1 What we tend to overlook in scapegoat-hunting and morbid devil-dodging is that the heart and center of the world crisis is in the democratic community itself.

1866 Sat. Rev. 27 Oct. 513/2 The man who at Berwick-on-Tweed is to swear to his Prayer Book, at Kelso is to swallow the Westminster Catechism. In vulgar language this is called devil-dodging.

1899 Westm. Gaz. 8 Mar. 2/1 Labourers will actually practise the ‘devil-dodging’ trick of going to church in the morning and to chapel in the evening.

1962 M. Hughes Fairest Island iv. 57 This eclecticism somewhat resembles the ‘devil-dodging’ in English villages during the early nineteenth century.

?1861 Charley Wag iv. xxxvii. 486/2 ‘You devil-dodging thief! I go to church and get drunk—do I?’ he bellowed out, shaking him [sc. Rev. Guzzle] with one hand.

1886 G. Allen For Maimie's Sake v. 35 A pack of trumpery superstitious devil-dodging nonsense.

1942 D. Dessau in H. S. Ingham Fire & Water 108 This caused Bill to refer to him as ‘that devil-dodging, sanctimonious, psalm-singing, Sankey-and-Moody, artful, conniving [unprintable]’.

2014 C. Ash Kruger, Kommandoes & Kak i. 54 These devil-dodging Calvinists declared the experiment to be ‘a defiance of God’.

1935 Lincs. Mag. July 164/2 This is a delightful mixture of Christianity and paganism,..leaving nothing to chance! a very devil-dodging charm!

2006 D. Hastings Over Mountains of Sea iv. 116 Devil-dodging dissenters routinely attended the official Church of England services on Sunday as well as holding their own meetings.