the dickens

English

Etymology

See dickens.

Adverb

the dickens

1. (euphemistic) The devil.

   She can go to the dickens for what she said.

2. 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

See also

• Dickensian