fiend

noun

1
b
: demon
c
: a person of great wickedness or maliciousness
2
: a person extremely devoted to a pursuit or study : fanatic
a golf fiend
3
: addict sense 1
a dope fiend
4
: wizard sense 2
a fiend at mathematics

Examples of fiend in a Sentence

His hands were trembling, actually trembling, as if he were some sort of coffee fiend or something. T. Coraghessan Boyle, The Road to Wellville, 1993
Wodehouse may not have liked Dickens, but he certainly read him. He read like a fiend. Christopher Hitchens, Times Literary Supplement, 7-13 Sept. 1990
The shameless effrontery of the fiend, at the café, pretending to forget all he had done to her, begging to take up with her again, as if nothing had happened between them a dozen years ago. Irving Wallace, The Plot, 1967
a fiend in human form He's a real golf fiend.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
While caveats abound—Harbaugh is a fiend for the running game, and Herbert’s been gimpy since suffering a high-ankle sprain in Week 2—the whiplash change of tactics is still pretty remarkable. Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 27 Sep. 2024 Celebrated monster-suit actor Doug Jones portrays the fiend, as well as the long-limbed Faun who leads our young hero (Ivana Baquero) into a subterranean world of magic and danger. Katie Rife, EW.com, 18 Oct. 2024 Cape Cod has a free hotel room for the Rice Krispies fiends who want to relieve their childhoods. Steph Solis, Axios, 14 Aug. 2024 Theodore Roosevelt had a particular loathing for Kodak fiends. Ben Tarnoff, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for fiend 

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English fīend; akin to Old High German fīant enemy, Sanskrit pīyati he reviles, blames

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of fiend was before the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near fiend

Cite this Entry

“Fiend.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiend. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

fiend

noun
1
2
: an extremely wicked or cruel person
3
a
: a person enthusiastically devoted to something
fiendish
ˈfēn-dish
adjective
fiendishly adverb
fiendishness noun

More from Merriam-Webster on fiend

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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