Devil

n 1: (Judeo-Christian religion) chief spirit of evil and

adversary of God; tempter of mankind; master of Hell

[syn: {Satan}, {Old Nick}, {Devil}, {the Devil}, {Lucifer},

{Beelzebub}, {the Tempter}, {Prince of Darkness}]

2: one of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian

belief [syn: {fiend}, {demon}, {daemon}, {daimon}]

3: a word used in exclamations of confusion; "what the devil"

or "the deuce with it" or "the dickens you say" [syn: {deuce},

{dickens}]

4: a rowdy or mischievous person (usually a young man); "he

chased the young hellions out of his yard" [syn: {hellion},

{heller}]

5: a cruel wicked and inhuman person [syn: {monster}, {fiend},

{demon}, {ogre}]

v 1: cause annoyance in; disturb, esp. by minor irritations:

"Mosquitoes buzzing in my ear really bothers me"; "It

irritates me that she never closes the door after she

leaves" [syn: {annoy}, {rag}, {get to}, {bother}, {get

at}, {irritate}, {rile}, {nark}, {nettle}, {gravel}, {vex}]

2: coat or stuff with a spicy paste: "devilled eggs"

evil

As used by a {hacker}, implies that some system, program,

person, or institution is sufficiently maldesigned as to be

not worth the bother of dealing with. Unlike the adjectives

in the cretinous, {losing}, {brain-damaged} series, "evil"

does not imply incompetence or bad design, but rather a set of

goals or design criteria fatally incompatible with the

speaker's. This usage is more an aesthetic and engineering

judgment than a moral one in the mainstream sense. "We

thought about adding a {Blue Glue} interface but decided it

was too evil to deal with." "{TECO} is neat, but it can be

pretty evil if you're prone to typos." Often pronounced with

the first syllable lengthened, as /eeee'vil/.

Compare {evil and rude}.

[{Jargon File}]

(1994-12-12)