Both Uses of
diabolical
in
The Poisonwood Bible
- Adah I T WAS NEITHER DIABOLICAL NOR divine; it but shook the doors of the prison house of my disposition; and like the captives of Philippi, that which stood within ran forth.†
Chpt 1 *
- L'ingéniosité diabolique de la nature a atteint avec ce serpent le plus haut degré de perfection, the experts claim in the library book of snakes: In this serpent the diabolic genius of nature has attained the highest degree of perfection.†
Chpt 4
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."