cheating the devil
Preserved but no longer current.
Mincing an oath; doing evil for gain, and giving part of the profits to the Church, etc. In a literal sense, cheating the devil is by no means unusual m monkish traditions. Thus the "Devils' Bridge," over the Fall of the Reuss, in the canton of the Uri, Switzerland, is a single arch over a cataract.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “cheating the devil” mean?
Mincing an oath; doing evil for gain, and giving part of the profits to the Church, etc. In a literal sense, cheating the devil is by no means unusual m monkish traditions. Thus the "Devils' Bridge," over the Fall of the Reuss, in the canton of the Uri, Switzerland, is a single arch over a cataract.
Is “cheating the devil” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.