infernal

comparative more infernal · superlative most infernal · alternative obsolete infernall

1. Of or relating to hell, or the world of the dead; hellish.

   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

   Synonyms: hellish, helly, stygian · Antonyms: celestial, heavenly

2. broadlyOf or relating to a fire or inferno.

   Synonyms: fiery

3. Stygian, gloomy.

   Synonyms: cimmerian, dusky, tenebrous, adumbral, blear, caliginous, cimmerian, crepuscular

4. Diabolical or fiendish.

   the instruments or abettors in such infernal dealings

   1711 December 18 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, December 8, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 244; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

   1 more example

   Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv'd The Mother of Mankind

   1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 34–36

5. Very annoying; damned.

   When are you ever going to learn to mind your own infernal business?

   1982, Sharon Green, The Warrior Within, page 10

   1 more example

   As I had to put up with the patronage and the lecturings, and the eyeglass of that infernal old woman, […]

   1905, Bram Stoker, The Man

   Synonyms: blessed, bloody, 4ucking, accursed, bally, blasted, bleeding, bleeping

plural infernals · alternative obsolete infernall

1. An inhabitant of the infernal regions, a demon.