the dickens

English

Etymology

See dickens.

Adverb

the dickens

1. 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], 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

• (intensifier): See Thesaurus:the dickens

Derived terms

• the dickens you say

Noun

the dickens

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see the,‎ dickens; (euphemistic) the devil.

   She can go to the dickens for what she said.

See also

• Dickensian