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LIKE THE DEVIL
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Dictionary entry overview: What does like the devil mean?
• LIKE THE DEVIL (adverb)
The adverb LIKE THE DEVIL has 1 sense:
1. (informal) with great speed or effort or intensity; used for emphasis
Familiarity information: LIKE THE DEVIL used as an adverb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
(informal) with great speed or effort or intensity; used for emphasis
Synonyms:
like crazy; like hell; like mad; like sin; like the devil; like thunder
Context example:
fought like the devil
Domain usage:
colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)
Context examples
When I'm in Parlyment and riding in my coach, I don't want none of these sea-lawyers in the cabin a-coming home, unlooked for, like the devil at prayers.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
As he stepped up to the cab, he pulled a gold watch from his pocket and looked at it earnestly, ‘Drive like the devil,’ he shouted, ‘first to Gross & Hankey’s in Regent Street, and then to the Church of St. Monica in the Edgeware Road.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"I know the ways of women," he announced. "Their hearts is soft. When their hearts is touched they're likely to stack the cards, look at the bottom of the deck, an' lie like the devil—beggin' your pardon, ma'am. I'm only discoursin' about women in general."
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
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