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the dickens. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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the dickens in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
See dickens.
Adverb
the dickens
- Used as an intensifier.
Why the dickens did he do that?
It is cold as the dickens out here!
c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 49, column 1:I cannot tell what the dickens his name / is that my husband had him of. What do you call your / knight's name, sirrah?
1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter IV, in The Land That Time Forgot:"That's it," I exclaimed, "--that's just the taste exactly, though I haven't experienced it since boyhood; but how can water from a flowing stream, taste thus, and what the dickens makes it so warm? It must be at least 70 or 80 Fahrenheit, possibly higher."
Synonyms
Derived terms
Noun
the dickens
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see the, dickens; (euphemistic) the devil.
She can go to the dickens for what she said.
See also