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?

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV

     "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): on earth, the hell, the devil, the heck

See also

• Dickensian