noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cheeky devil/monkey etc
▪
You did that on purpose, you cheeky little devil!
devil's advocate
▪
He would play devil’s advocate with anyone.
devil's food cake
possessed by the devil
▪
She was convinced he was possessed by the devil .
the devil incarnate (= someone very evil )
▪
The media cast him as the devil incarnate .
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
blue
▪
There are blue devils and blue ribbons and blue bloods.
handsome
▪
He was a handsome devil , clever and presumably extremely well off.
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She said I was a handsome devil , too.
little
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Indeed, I worship the little devil , but only as a travelling companion.
▪
That brute Cullam fetched him a fourpenny one, poor little devil .
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Those little devils just don't care what they eat, do they?
old
▪
There was one old devil with red eyes.
▪
Not that he's the worst of them, poor old devil .
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I really miss the old devil .
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Impotent old devils and dried-up hags always deride the efforts of the young.
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So much, thought Blanche, for flirting with the lascivious old devil .
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Nor had they, because the old devils had filled their shoes with earth from Balnagowan in Easter Ross.
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He was a real old devil .
poor
▪
I was driving past and tried to stop this poor devil getting beaten up.
▪
I know bow the poor devil feels.
▪
This isn't a propitious start for him, poor devil .
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Not that he's the worst of them, poor old devil .
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He loathed the sterile ritual of inspections, and this poor devil in his untimely end had saved him from that.
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What on earth was eating the poor devil ?
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And the poor devil can't hide a thing from her.
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But, after doing so, the surviving poor devils were discarded like a bunch of rags.
■ VERB
know
▪
The devils knew that all men sinned, and all men must die.
▪
For much of the Bloc, then, the solution may be to opt for the devil they know .
▪
Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.
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He was also, on the whole, for the Khedive on the grounds that at least he was the devil they knew .
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Is the devil we know better than the devil we don't know?
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Better the devil you know ....
▪
But we're dealing with a devil we don't know and we're paying the devil more than his due.
play
▪
I even drew a donkey playing and a devil dancing.
possess
▪
She told him then, unable to help herself: he was possessed by devils .
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Instead, she said, Ells told her she was possessed by devils .
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Why the Story was Remembered A poor man believed himself to be possessed by many devils .
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Instead of praise, she was told she was possessed by the devil .
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If he were possessed by devils , Kate thought, it would be a simple explanation.
talk
▪
What the devil was he talking about?
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
needs must (when the devil drives)
old devil/rascal etc
▪
A true old devil, Manson vanishes in a puff of smoke.
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He is not a character I like at all because I think he was just an old rascal.
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I really miss the old devil.
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Impotent old devils and dried-up hags always deride the efforts of the young.
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Not that he's the worst of them, poor old devil.
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There was one old devil with red eyes.
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Yet, in spite of everything, David Miller grew up to idolise the old rascal.
sell your soul (to the devil)
▪
A whole week in Paris at Easter seemed to her something for which she would willingly have sold her soul.
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Faustus wilfully ends himself; he sells his soul to the devil.
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He doesn't accuse us of selling our souls.
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If he were mine, I would rather sell my soul.
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Men who have sold their souls to the darkness.
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She was accused of being a Salem witch for selling her soul to the devil at the strawberry banks.
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The fact that we would literally sell our soul to Continental Airlines.
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Timothy was agonising over her, when Honor West would have sold her soul for a single kiss from him.
the devil/hell to pay
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Beside him stood a devil in red tights with horns and a forked tail.
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But he was an old man nevertheless, with young boys being so close and full of the devil .
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I said, if it wasn't true, then the devils would be exorcized.
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If we come really unstuck, then we can blame the devil !
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The Bible makes it clear that the devil and his forces are the masters of misrepresentation.
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There was a representation of the devil carrying off the wicked to Hades.
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What the devil does he want?