The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bedevil \Be*dev"il\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bedevilled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Bedeviling or Bedevilling.]
-
To throw into utter disorder and confusion, as if by the agency of evil spirits; to bring under diabolical influence; to torment.
Bedeviled and used worse than St. Bartholomew.
--Sterne. To spoil; to corrupt.
--Wright.
Wiktionary
alt. (context British English) (present participle of bedevil English) vb. (context British English) (present participle of bedevil English)
WordNet
v. treat cruelly; "The children tormented the stuttering teacher" [syn: torment, rag, crucify, dun, frustrate]
be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly; "These questions confuse even the experts"; "This question completely threw me"; "This question befuddled even the teacher" [syn: confuse, throw, fox, befuddle, fuddle, confound, discombobulate]
[also: bedevilling, bedevilled]
See bedevil
Usage examples of "bedevilling".
Images rebounded around the walls of my mind, merging, splitting, rejoining, bedevilling me into a state of complete disorientation.
Nor is the history of fanatics half so striking in respect to the measureless self-deception of the fanatic himself, as his measureless power of deceiving and bedevilling so many others.
Rosemary could hear the sound of their own bedevilling geyser reducing.
Treasury is bedevilling me to freeze all the funds of Germany and Italy here, but State says no, we've got four times as much invested in those countries as they've got with us.