fiend

plural fiends · alternative fend

1. A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.

   Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!

   1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   what God or Feend, or ſpirit of the earth, Or Monſter turned to a manly ſhape, Or of what mould or mettel he be made, […]

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vi

   Many hold too that he was acquainted with forbidden arts, and used to carry on an intercourse with the fiends and old women that raised storms, and such like.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 315

   Synonyms: monster

2. A very evil person.

   Synonyms: monster, hellhound

3. obsoleteAn enemy; a foe.

   We waited for our fiend to arrive.

4. archaiccapitalizedsometimesreligiousThe enemy of mankind, specifically, the Devil; Satan.

   He proffered a pact to Satan, calling upon the Fiend and working himself into a frenzy - but his infernal majesty failed to respond.

   1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 119

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   At the confirmation ceremony the bishop would lay his hands on the child and tie around its forehead a linen band […]. This was believed to strengthen him against the assaults of the fiend […]

   1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 35

5. informalAn addict or fanatic.

   dope fiend

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   He's been a jazz fiend since his teenage years.

   Now the sign of the Lamb is a modern daub, not that which hung like a "banner on the outward wall," when the celebrated "cigar-fiend" used to haunt the hostelrie consuming incredible quantities of the best Havanas.

   1837 May 27, “The Poor Gentleman”, in New-York Mirror, volume 14, number 48, New York City: [G.P. Morris], →OCLC, page 377

   You could hear him putting away his crumby toilet articles and all, and opening the window. He was a fresh-air fiend.

   1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 64

present singular third person fiends · participle present fiending · participle past fiended · past fiended · alternative fend

1. intransitiveslangTo yearn; to be desperate.

   I am back in San Francisco at the Clift Hotel, fiending for my fix.

   2011, Emma J. Stephens, For a Dancer: The Memoir

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   I play it off, but I'm dreaming of you / And I'll try to keep my cool, but I'm fiendin'

   1999, Macy Gray, Jeremy Ruzumna, Jinsoo Lim, David Wilder, “I Try”

   Synonyms: feen, jones