"the devil a one" meaning in English

See the devil a one in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Pronoun

Head templates: {{head|en|pronoun|||||||||||||||||||head=}} the devil a one, {{en-pron}} the devil a one
  1. (now regional, dated, idiomatic, slang) Not a single one, none (of a number of people or things). Tags: dated, idiomatic, regional, slang
    Sense id: en-the_devil_a_one-en-pron-IDK00K8N Categories (other): Regional English
  2. (now regional, dated, idiomatic, slang) Not; with a singular pronoun, negates the clause. Tags: dated, idiomatic, regional, slang
    Sense id: en-the_devil_a_one-en-pron--9urbz4q Categories (other): Regional English, English entries with incorrect language header, English pronouns, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 38 62 Disambiguation of English pronouns: 28 72 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 25 75 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 28 72
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          "ref": "1653, Thomas Urquhart, transl., The First Book of the Works of Mr. Francis Rabelais, London: Richard Baddeley, Book 2, Chapter 26, p. 168-169:",
          "text": "making great chear with a good deal of vineger, the devil a one of them did forbear from his victuals, it was a triumphant and incomparable spectacle to see how they ravened and devoured.",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1709, Susanna Centlivre, The Man’s Bewitch’d, London: Bernard Lintott, act V, page 66:",
          "text": "[…] she wou’d have corrupted all their Wives; the Devil a one wou’d have made her own Butter, after being acquainted with her.",
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          "ref": "1790, John O’Keeffe, The Highland Reel, Dublin, act 2, page 34:",
          "text": "(He helps them on with the clothes.) There, the devil a one of them can know you now— […] you’re so nicely disguised,",
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          "ref": "c. 1813, anonymous author, “Perry’s Victory”, in Robert W. Neeser, editor, American Naval Songs and Ballads, New Haven: Yale University Press, published 1938, page 187:",
          "text": "Whole volleys of muskets were level’d at him,\nBut the devil a one ever graz’d e’en a limb,",
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          "text": "1912, George A. Birmingham, Priscilla’s Spies, New York: Hodder and Stoughton, G.H. Doran, Chapter 14, pp. 183-184,\nJimmy says it’s hard to tell what she’d be after. He did think at the first go off that it might be cockles; but it’s not, for he took her to Carribee strand, where there’s plenty of them, and the devil a one she’d pick up."
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          "text": "The devil a one of me will ever set foot there.",
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          "ref": "1916, Seumas O’Brien, “The Lady of the Moon”, in The Whale and the Grasshopper and other Fables,, Boston: Little, Brown, page 164:",
          "text": "[…] I met just as strange a man, and he sitting on his hat on the banks of the Fairy Lake of Lisnavarna, watching the moon’s reflection in the clear waters, and the devil a one of him knew that he was contrary at all.",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (0c0c1f1 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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