Meanings
dickens1
- euphemisticThe devil.
You scared the dickens out of me.
2 more examples
She can go to the dickens for what she said.
“Four weeks ago, I was sitting down for breakfast with my beautiful wife, Evie. Evie and I were sitting down with our two beautiful little boys, Connor and C-C-- Cah-- ristopher, and Christopher looks up to me-- he's six years old and full of the dickens--”
2023 July 27, Max Brockman & Shana Gohd, “The Campaign” (8:49 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 4, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) - A disturbance or row.
And lastly, thanks to my children, Dutch and Tallulah, for allowing me to see the magic of everything I love about popular culture anew through their eyes. This one is for you two dickens!
2013, Robert C. Sickels, “Acknowledgments”, in 100 Entertainers Who Changed America: An Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Luminaries, Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, LLC, →ISBN1 more example
Hugh considered saying, Then I guess I'll just have to kick you a few times instead, you frog son of a bitch. Then he thought of that fat bastard Keeton, handing him a pink slip for kicking up dickens in the local tavern.
1991, Stephen King, Needful Things - Used as an intensifier in the phrase the dickens; see that entry.
We had the dickens of a row.
1 more example
Why the dickens did he do that?
Dickens2
- A surname originating as a patronymic, notably borne by Charles Dickens, English novelist.
- A small city, the county seat of Dickens County, Texas, United States.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
dickens · noun
Origin: 1590–1600; apparently a fanciful use of the proper name Dicken, diminutive form of Dick.
Full word history & related roots →Dickens · proper noun
From Dicken, a medieval diminutive form of Dick + the patronymic suffix -s.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 狄更斯
- 狄更斯 (Dígèngsī)Transliterations of the surname
Japanese ディケンズ
- ディケンズ (Dikenzu)Transliterations of the surname
Polish Dickens
- DickensTransliterations of the surname
Russian Ди́ккенс
- Ди́ккенс (Díkkens)Transliterations of the surname
Cite this entry
dickens. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dickens
“dickens.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dickens. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dickens,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dickens.
Source: dickens on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.