adjective

• 1Extremely cruel or unpleasant.

  ‘fiendish methods of torture’

  More example sentences

  • ‘I seem to be stuck halfway between fiendish laughter and pathetic sobbing.’
  • ‘Human beings over the ages have delighted in the most horrific and fiendish methods of inflicting extreme suffering, pain and mutilation.’

  Synonyms

  wicked, cruel, vicious, evil, nefarious, unspeakable

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  1. 1.1informal Extremely awkward or complex.
     More example sentences

     • ‘a fiendish problem’
     • ‘The superlatively analytical Inspector Hemingway reveals his unnerving talent for solving a fiendish problem.’
     • ‘She triumphed over a field of men and women of all ages with a winning time of 13 minutes 48 seconds for a super fiendish puzzle.’
     Synonyms

     difficult, complex, complicated, intricate, involved, knotty, thorny, ticklish, abstruse, impenetrable, unfathomable

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