devilize

English

Etymology

From devil +‎ -ize.

Verb

devilize (third-person singular simple present devilizes, present participle devilizing, simple past and past participle devilized) (American spelling, Oxford British English)

1. (transitive) To represent as a devil.
   • 1624, Joseph Hall, The Enemies of the Cross of Christ:

     He that should deify a saint, should wrong him as much as he that should devilize him.

   • 1726, [Daniel Defoe], “Of Satan’s Agents or Missionaries, and Their Actings upon and in the Minds of Men in His Name”, in The Political History of the Devil, as well Ancient as Modern: […], London: […] T. Warner, […], →OCLC, part II (Of the Modern History of the Devil), page 244:

     [W]hen his other more momentous Avocations of Pedantry and Pedagogiſm vvill give him an Interval from VVrath and Contention, he vvill ſet apart a Moment to conſider humane Nature Deviliz'd, and give us a Mathematical Anatomical Deſcription of it; […]

Alternative forms

• devilise (British spelling)