Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- Satan; the devil.
- any evil spirit; demon.
- a diabolically cruel or wicked person.
- a person or thing that causes mischief or annoyance: Those children are little fiends.
- Informal. a person who is extremely addicted to some pernicious habit: an opium fiend.
- Informal. a person who is excessively interested in some game, sport, etc.; fan; buff: a bridge fiend.
- a person who is highly skilled or gifted in something: a fiend at languages.
verb (used without object)
- Also feen [feen] /fin/. Slang. to desire greatly: just another junkie fiending after his next hit; As soon as I finish a cigarette I’m fiending to light another.
noun
- an evil spirit; demon; devil
- a person who is extremely wicked, esp in being very cruel or brutal
- informal
- a person who is intensely interested in or fond of somethinga fresh-air fiend; he is a fiend for cards
- an addicta drug fiend
- (informal) a mischievous or spiteful person, esp a child
noun
- the Fiend the devil; Satan
Old English feond “enemy, foe,” originally present participle of feogan “to hate,” from Proto-Germanic *fijæjan (cf. Old Frisian fiand “enemy,” Old Saxon fiond, Middle Dutch viant, Dutch vijand “enemy,” Old Norse fjandi, Old High German fiant, Gothic fijands), from PIE root *pe(i)- “to blame, revile” (cf. Gothic faian “to blame;” see passion).
As spelling suggests, it was originally the opposite of friend, but the word began to be used in Old English for “Satan” (as the “enemy of mankind”), which shifted its sense to “diabolical person” (early 13c.). The old sense of the word devolved to foe, then to the imported word enemy. For spelling with -ie- see field. Meaning “devotee (of whatever is indicated),” e.g. dope fiend, is from 1865.