To bedevil, to plague, to ruin.
1652. The Serpent devil’d Eve.—Benlowes, ‘Theoph.,’ ii. 15. (N.E.D.)
1698. I’ll devil you, you jade you!—Vanbrugh, ‘The Provoked Wife.’ (N.E.D.)
1823. Go, father, and tell our great father, the President, how we [the Indian chiefs] are deviled and cheated, and if he does not do us justice, go, tell him he is a hog, and that we would burn up the land if we could.—W. Faux, ‘Memorable Days in America,’ p. 216 (Lond.).
