To play the deuce or devil with, verb. phr. (common).—To send, or be
sent, to rack and ruin.
1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. i. I have a presentiment
that the cooking will play the deuce with my digestion.
1885. Indoor Paupers, p. 89. Her drinking played the deuce with the
shop.
The deuce to pay, phr. (common).—Unpleasant or awkward consequences to
be faced; see Devil to pay.
1854. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 69. There has been such
a row, and disturbance, and quarrelling, and fighting, and chopping
of heads off, and the deuce to pay, that I’m inclined to go back to
Cumtartary.
1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xxxiii. One or both of ’em
... report me for negligence! I get a curt telegram to come to
town, and here’s the deuce to pay!
Deuced, adj. (common).—Devilish; excessive; confounded. Also
adverbially. [From deuce (q.v.), + ed.]
1836. Michael Scott, The Cruise of the Midge, vol. I. [ed. 1860],
p. 160. Quacco all this while was twisting and turning himself,
and, although evidently in a deuced quandary, trying to laugh the
affair off as a joke.
Deusea-ville, subs. (old).—The Country.—See Daisyville.
Deusea-ville Stampers, subs. phr. (old).—Country carriers.
Devil, subs. (common).—1. Formerly a barrister who devils, or ‘gets
up,’ a case for a leader; as in A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton for
Mr. Stryver. Now common for anyone hacking for another.—(See quots.,
1889.)
1872. Echo, 14 Nov. Mr. Archibald, the Attorney-General’s devil is
to be made a judge. Well, other devils have been made judges of.
Sir James Hannen, we are told, was a devil once.
1873. Daily Telegraph, 12 Feb. It will not be possible even to send
a telegram to a French journal during a sitting. Not a word must be
printed until the President’s devil has distributed the Officiel to
the different office boys who will henceforth, etc.
1889. Telegram. M— 84, B— Street, London, E.C. Strange letter
received. Will you please see devil at my chambers? R—. [In
original telegram the word ‘devil’ was queried by the P.O.
authorities!]
1889. George R. Sims, The Author’s Ghost. ‘Who are you?’ I asked in
dismay. ‘I’m a devil....’ ‘A what!’ I exclaimed with a start. ‘A
devil.... I give plots and incidents to popular authors, sir, write
poetry for them, drop in situations, jokes, work up their rough
material: in short, sir, I devil for them.’
1890. Speaker, 22 Feb., p. 211, col. 2. No one who is not in the
swim can have any conception of the amount of work and worry that
devolves upon a counsel in leading practice at the criminal bar....
He has to do the best he can, with the assistance of juniors and
devils.
2. (printers’).—An errand boy or young apprentice; in the early days of
the craft, the boy who took the printed sheets as they came from the
press. Fr., un attrape-science.
1754. Connoisseur, No. 9. Our publisher, printer, corrector, devil,
or any other employed in our service.
1757. Foote, Author, Act I. A printer’s prime minister, called a
devil.
1859. Punch, vol. XXXVI, p. 82. ‘An author’s paradise.’ A place
where there are no printers’ devils.
1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorp, p. 211. He wrote in a leisurely
world, when there was plenty of time for writing and reading; long
before the advent of the printer’s devil or of Mr. Mudie.