1Wicked activity.

1. 1.1 Reckless mischief.
   a perverse sense of devilry urged her to lead him on

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Tony had stepped into the room just as his mother had accused his friend of devilry, and knew that he had to interrupt before things got ugly.
   • The devilry exhibited by minibus drivers and their long-distance counterparts is fuelled by the inability of transport proprietors to maintain their fleets or single vehicles in reasonable condition.
   • The Presto vivace Finale, however, finds our conductor in joyous vein throughout, with a strong sense of devilry bringing added exuberance to those key points where Schubert urges his forces in other directions.
   • He carried on with his devilry not just because he thought it served a good purpose, but also because he enjoyed it.
   • So, not much to behold of the left-footed devilry that terrorised defences around the globe and won him the coveted African footballer's award in 1988, but perhaps a different kind of magic to see.
   • They may, however, have missed the real story - a tale of some very nasty political devilry.
   • A trade group for the US recording industry is targeting ISPs in its latest bid to rid the world of Napster-style devilry.
   • Slowly, his astonishment mutated into a face of contorted devilry.
   • In some ways, their findings merely confirm the accepted image of a King lacking the drive and devilry of either his father or his son.
   • The whole place had an eerie feel, it was over 250 years old and in that time there must have been plenty of devilry and scandalous behaviour.
   • Not since ITV's Brideshead Revisited, 20 years ago now, has an English country house been home to so many familiar names, and if Gosford Park life lacks the vicious streak of Evelyn Waugh's work, its playful devilry is a joy.
   • One thing he does is get up to a little competitive devilry by unveiling the Google Pack, a parcel of software programs that you can download for free (if you have a Windows PC).
   • The artist that launched a thousand two-tone bands has dignity and devilry, vocal smile and varnished soul.

   Synonyms

   mischief, naughtiness, badness, bad behaviour, misbehaviour, mischievousness, troublemaking, misconduct, misdemeanour, perversity, disobedience, pranks, impishness, tricks, larks, capers, nonsense, roguery, rascality, devilment, funny business

   French diablerie

   informal monkey tricks, monkey business, shenanigans, goings-on, hanky-panky

   British informal carry-on, carryings-on, jiggery-pokery
2. 1.2 Black magic; dealings with the devil.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • ‘… To think that she'd be able to conjure up such devilry as this,’ cursed the Archmage, as he struggled to compact the sphere further.
   • Even the low-comedy scenes, in which Tom Smith's red-nosed Robin dabbles in devilry, emerge as a caustic reflection of Faustus's higher magic and demonstrate the futility of his quest for omnipotence.
   • Make-up is an art of adornment and concealment and vanity - three prongs of devilry - and is frowned upon in all its many forms.
   • An earlier authority, Dallas in Kettner's Book of the Table, had stated that devils were of two kinds, the dry and the wet, but had also commented: It is the great fault of all devilry that it knows no bounds.
   • They have devilry in their souls, and a movie like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban does not soothe them.
   • Is it to expose them to devilry and witchery at such a young, impressionable age, and all in the name of fun?
   • He threw the broad sword and it hit right into the small face of the demon-beast that was using devilry magic.
   • Yellow eyes or a yellow complexion can be signs of illness (as in jaundice) or of devilry, or both: Frankenstein's monster had yellow, watery eyes.
   • Thus the nightmarish devilry of the Symphonie fantastique is purely to be imagined, not seen; so too are the will-o’-the-wisps and the inhabitants of pandemonium in La Damnation de Faust.
   • Masking the witches also moves them from a simplistic medieval notion of devilry and further towards symbolism.
   • As the moth leaves, the Isengard motif returns, driving itself like the machinery it represents as we see the devilry that Saruman is creating below the tower.

   Synonyms

   black magic, sorcery, magic, witchcraft, wizardry, necromancy, enchantment, spellworking, incantation, the supernatural, occultism, the occult, the black arts, divination, malediction, voodoo, hoodoo, sympathetic magic, witching, witchery

   charms, hexes, spells, jinxes

   North American mojo, orenda

   New Zealand makutu

   South African informal muti

   rare sortilege, thaumaturgy, theurgy