All 3 Uses of
diabolical
in
Moby Dick
- "Oh, no," said he, looking a sort of diabolically funny, "the harpooneer is a dark complexioned chap.†
Chpt 1-3
- This was strangely heightened at times by the ragged Elijah's diabolical incoherences uninvitedly recurring to me, with a subtle energy I could not have before conceived of.†
Chpt 28-30 *
- He flies into diabolical passions sometimes.†
Chpt 100-102
Definitions:
-
(1)
(diabolical) evil; very bad; or cruel and clever (like something of the devil)
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely (and then in British English), diabolical can mean very bad -- as in "The traffic was diabolical."