bedevil

verb be·dev·il \ bi-ˈde-vəl , bē- \

Updated on: 11 Apr 2018

Definition of bedevil

transitive verb

1 : to possess with or as if with a devil

2 : to cause distress : trouble

3 : to change for the worse : spoil

4 : to confuse utterly

—

bedevilment

play \-mənt\ noun

See bedevil defined for English-language learners

See bedevil defined for kids

Examples of bedevil in a Sentence

The theory bedevils scientists, none of whom have been able to prove it true or false.
The project has been bedeviled by problems since its inception.

Recent Examples of bedevil from the Web

The prohibition has bedeviled LGBT people across the former British Empire for more than a century.

— max bearak, Washington Post, "Gay Kenyans sense they may be on the brink of a historic legal triumph," 3 Apr. 2018
The site has bedeviled successive Charlotte City Councils for years, ever since Eastland began its precipitous plunge into oblivion starting in the mid-2000s.

— ely portillo and steve harrison, charlotteobserver, "One of these plans could save the old Eastland Mall site, as the city tries new ideas | Charlotte Observer," 26 Mar. 2018
But cheap gas has bedeviled drillers, many of whom are battling low prices by drilling bigger wells in search of efficiencies.

— stephanie yang, WSJ, "How Two Wells in Wyoming Explain the Natural-Gas Glut," 21 Mar. 2018
South Korea’s current president, Moon Jae-in, won an election to replace Ms. Park last May with promises to root out corrupt ties between politics and business that have bedeviled the country for decades.

— choe sang-hun, New York Times, "In South Korea, Another Former President Lands in Jail," 22 Mar. 2018
Figuring out via algorithms what items to offer shoppers has bedeviled retailers for years.

— phil wahba, Fortune, "Macy's Ramps Up Tech Push With Virtual Reality and Personalized Online Shopping," 19 Mar. 2018
Now Facebook is encountering the challenges that have bedeviled Google, the leader in search, which has spent years cleaning up racist, sexist and other objectionable autocomplete results.

— jessica guynn, USA TODAY, "Facebook autocomplete search result shocks users," 16 Mar. 2018
Flynn was Trump’s national security adviser for a short time, but his connection to the White House was rife with controversy that still bedevils the administration.

— kaitlyn schallhorn, Fox News, "Trump and the Russia investigation: What to know," 15 Mar. 2018
There’s no stop/start stumble, no waiting for the turbo to spool up to speed, plus the inherent balance of the straight-six means that there’s no unbecoming harshness or graininess, traits that have sometimes bedeviled Daimler’s V-6 engines.

— davey g. johnson, Car and Driver, "2019 Mercedes-Benz CLS-class / CLS53 AMG," 9 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'bedevil.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.