fiend

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A cruel or evil person.

   The newspapers called the killer a fiend after the details of his crimes came out.

2. 2
   noun

   An evil spirit or demon; the Devil.

   In the old story, a fiend rose from the underworld to tempt the knight.

3. 3
   noun

   A person who is obsessed with or addicted to something.

   My brother is a chess fiend who plays online for hours every night.

From Middle English fend, feend (“enemy; demon”), from Old English fēond (“enemy”), Proto-West Germanic *fijand, from Proto-Germanic *fijandz. Cognates Cognate with Scots fient (“fiend”), Saterland Frisian Fäind (“enemy, fiend, foe”), Cimbrian faint (“enemy, fiend”), Dutch vijand (“enemy”), German Feind (“enemy, fiend, foe”), Vilamovian faeind, fajnd (“enemy”), Yiddish פֿײַנד (faynd), פֿײַנט (faynt, “enemy”), Danish fjende (“adversary, enemy, foe”), Icelandic fjandi (“enemy; fiend, demon, devil”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish fiende (“enemy”), Old Norse fjándi (“enemy; devil…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
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