hyperdiabolical
English
Etymology
From hyper- + diabolical.
Adjective
hyperdiabolical (comparative more hyperdiabolical, superlative most hyperdiabolical)
- Extraordinarily diabolical.
- 1861, Thomas Adams, The Works of Thomas Adams[1], James Nichol, page 206:
- This is in him a hyperbolical, and almost a hyperdiabolical impudence, to make the bread of sin equal with the 'bread of life,' and to ascribe unto it potentiam virtutis and virtutem dulcedinis,--- that it is bread, and sweet bread, nourishing and well-tasted.
- 1901, F.C. de Sumichrast, The Complete Works of Theophile Gautier, Volume 6 (IV)[2], Bigelow, Smith and Company, page 44:
- Their exterior did not please her any more than their minds. Insignificant or deformed, earthy or apoplectic, with bilious or blotched faces, blue when shaved, marked with deep wrinkles, rough wild hair, muscular, hairy arms did not charm her. The excessive delicacy of her temperament made her feel these defects much more keenly ; a man who was but a man to robust Cynthia seemed a wild boar to her. Although Musidora was eighteen, she was not really a woman, she was not even a girl, she was a child, utterly corrupt, it is true, and concealing within her frail form hyperdiabolical wickedness. With her candid air, she would have duped cardinals and tricked Talleyrand. She therefore had remarkable advantages over her rivals, for her well-known indifference and coldness were a sort of virginity which any one would have been glad to take from her. She had the art of creating obstacles and irritating desire by erecting a barrier against it. She was less fortunate this time, however, in her attempts at seduction. In spite of her kittenlike airs and her pretty manners, Fortunio paid her only just as much attention as a well-bred man does to any woman sitting near him ; that is, the meaningless semifamiliar attentions which one indulges in with a pretty woman.
- 1996-1997, Mark Alan Kishlansky (Mark A. Kishlansky), A Monarchy Transformed[3], Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 67:
- The revelation of the Gunpowder Plot caused a sensation. Members of Parliament wept at their providential deliverance from what one overwrought minister described as ‘hyperdiabolical devilishness’.