devilishnessn.

1526 Grete Herball xxix. sig. B.viv/1 It is also good agaynst yll thoughtes,..and all deuyllysshenesse fleeth fro the place where it is.

1549 E. Allen tr. L. Juda Paraphr. Reuelacion S. John ix. f. 13, in M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II Very wicked and abhominable supersticions and diuillyshnes.

1620 J. Melton Astrologaster 80 The diuellishnesse of your Diuination.

1663 H. Janson Philanax Anglicus 24 In the Empire dwelleth the fulness of devilishness.

1733 Duchess of Queensberry Let. 12 Apr. in J. Swift Corr. (1965) IV. 142 I have betrayd to you the divelishness of my temper.

1769 True Hist. Scheme for Seminary 9 He..has more Devilishness than Charity in him.

1844 D. Masson in Fraser's Mag. Dec. 659/1 Mephistopheles's nature..complete, confirmed, irrevocable devilishness.

1870 T. T. Lynch Mornington Lect. 79 Devilishness in man is his self-love and its unrest, and the total devilishness of the world..shows itself forth in the varied forms of wrath, and envy, and hate.

1928 A. Huxley Point Counter Point viii. 131 The gargoyle was a comic devil, so extravagantly diabolical that you couldn't take his devilishness very seriously.

1958 Observer 13 July 5/5 His eyes were finally opened to the devilishness of the rebels when he was taken to see row upon row of hideously mutilated bodies.

2012 Cape Argus (Nexis) 21 Apr. (Life section) 21 It could also be the thrilling tension between Dracula's devilishness and his charm that entrances us.