Search

to torment or har-ss maliciously or diabolically, as with doubts, distractions, or worries.
to possess, as with a devil; bewitch.
to cause confusion or doubt in; muddle; confound:
an issue bedeviled by prejudices.
to beset or hamper continuously:
a new building bedeviled by elevator failures.
contemporary examples

my case, which is spelled out in detail here, looks back at what bedeviled presidents as the glow of their return to office faded.
how iraq became obama’s war jeff greenfield july 5, 2014

so the democratic gathering is the second convention to be bedeviled by bad weather.
convention speech moved inside: rain foils obama’s plans howard kurtz september 4, 2012

marlantes seemed to have escaped the deeper psychic wounds of vietnam that bedeviled so many combat vets.
the last vietnam war epic john douglas marshall april 7, 2010

but things have not turned out that way, like so much else in this bedeviled relationship.
nato summit’s big loser: behind obama’s snub of pakistan bruce riedel may 21, 2012

part of it, sridix says, is to avoid a problem that bedeviled old-fashioned 3-d: headaches.
the 3-d p-rn revolution eric pape march 27, 2010

historical examples

each incoming administration is bedeviled by hordes of applicants, as greedy as the daughters of the horseleech.
the galaxy, june 1877 various

she has actually been bedeviled, as true as i am a daughter of israel.
the white terror and the red abraham cahan

barometers way down, comp-ss is bedeviled, seams opening fore and aft.
cursed george allan england

you are the count of the county of nantes, close to the frontiers of that bedeviled armorica.
the abbatial crosier eugne sue

the squire was sure that “bedeviled tigress would never die in bed.”
sharing her crime may agnes fleming

verb (transitive) -ils, -illing, -illed (us) -ils, -iling, -iled
to har-ss or torment
to throw into confusion
to possess, as with a devil
v.

1768, “to treat diabolically, abuse,” from be- + verbal use of devil (q.v.). meaning “to mischievously confuse” is from 1755; that of “to drive frantic” is from 1823. related: bedeviled (1570s, in a literal sense, “possessed”); bedeviling.