fiend

English

Alternative forms

• fend

Etymology

From Middle English feend, fēnd, fiend, feond, viend, veond (“enemy; demon”), from Old English fēond (“enemy”), from Proto-Germanic *fijandz.

Compare Old Norse fjándi (Icelandic fjandi, Danish fjende, Norwegian fiende, Swedish fiende, West Frisian fijân, Low German Feend, Fiend, Dutch vijand, German Feind, Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌾𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (fijands)), with all of them meaning foe. The Old Norse and Gothic terms are present participles of the corresponding verbs fjá/𐍆𐌹𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fijan, “to hate”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate”) (compare Sanskrit पीयति (pī́yati, “(he) reviles”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fiːnd/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

  • Rhymes: -iːnd
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /fɛnd/

Noun

fiend (plural fiends)

1. A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.

   Synonym: monster

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vi:

     what God or Feend, or ſpirit of the earth,
     Or Monſter turned to a manly ſhape,
     Or of what mould or mettel he be made, […]

   • 1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review‎, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London: Wiley & Putnam, , →OCLC:

     Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!

2. A very evil person.

   Synonym: monster

3. (obsolete) An enemy; a foe.

   We waited for our fiend to arrive.

4. (religious, archaic) The enemy of mankind, specifically, the Devil; Satan.
   • 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 35:

     At the confirmation ceremony the bishop would lay his hands on the child and tie around its forehead a linen band […] . This was believed to strengthen him against the assaults of the fiend […]

5. (informal) An addict or fanatic.

   dope fiend

   He's been a jazz fiend since his teenage years.

   • 1837 May 27, “The Poor Gentleman”, in New-York Mirror‎, volume 14, number 48, New York City: , →OCLC, page 377:

     Now the sign of the Lamb is a modern daub, not that which hung like a "banner on the outward wall," when the celebrated "cigar-fiend" used to haunt the hostelrie consuming incredible quantities of the best Havanas.

   • 1951, J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 64:

     You could hear him putting away his crumby toilet articles and all, and opening the window. He was a fresh-air fiend.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

fiend (third-person singular simple present fiends, present participle fiending, simple past and past participle fiended)

1. (slang, intransitive) To yearn; to be desperate (for something, especially drugs).
   • 1999, Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim, David Wilder (lyrics and music), “I Try”:

     I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you / And I'll try to keep my cool, but I'm fiendin'

   • 2011, Emma J. Stephens, For a Dancer: The Memoir:

     I am back in San Francisco at the Clift Hotel, fiending for my fix.

Synonyms

• feen, jones

Translations

References

Anagrams

• endif, finde, fined, indef, indef.

Middle English

Noun

fiend (plural fiendes)

1. Alternative form of feend

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi͜yːnd/

Noun

fīend

1. dative singular of fēond
2. nominative and accusative plural of fēond