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Printer's devil   /prˈɪntərz dˈɛvəl/   Listen
noun
Devil  n.  
1.
The Evil One; Satan, represented as the tempter and spiritual of mankind. "(Jesus) being forty days tempted of the devil." "That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."
2.
An evil spirit; a demon. "A dumb man possessed with a devil."
3.
A very wicked person; hence, any great evil. "That devil Glendower." "The devil drunkenness." "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"
4.
An expletive of surprise, vexation, or emphasis, or, ironically, of negation. (Low) "The devil a puritan that he is,... but a timepleaser." "The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, But wonder how the devil they got there."
5.
(Cookery) A dish, as a bone with the meat, broiled and excessively peppered; a grill with Cayenne pepper. "Men and women busy in baking, broiling, roasting oysters, and preparing devils on the gridiron."
6.
(Manuf.) A machine for tearing or cutting rags, cotton, etc.
Blue devils. See under Blue.
Cartesian devil. See under Cartesian.
Devil bird (Zool.), one of two or more South African drongo shrikes (Edolius retifer, and Edolius remifer), believed by the natives to be connected with sorcery.
Devil may care, reckless, defiant of authority; used adjectively.
Devil's apron (Bot.), the large kelp (Laminaria saccharina, and Laminaria longicruris) of the Atlantic ocean, having a blackish, leathery expansion, shaped somewhat like an apron.
Devil's coachhorse. (Zool.)
(a)
The black rove beetle (Ocypus olens). (Eng.)
(b)
A large, predacious, hemipterous insect (Prionotus cristatus); the wheel bug. (U.S.)
Devil's darning-needle. (Zool.) See under Darn, v. t.
Devil's fingers, Devil's hand (Zool.), the common British starfish (Asterias rubens); also applied to a sponge with stout branches. (Prov. Eng., Irish & Scot.)
Devil's riding-horse (Zool.), the American mantis (Mantis Carolina).
The Devil's tattoo, a drumming with the fingers or feet. "Jack played the Devil's tattoo on the door with his boot heels."
Devil worship, worship of the power of evil; still practiced by barbarians who believe that the good and evil forces of nature are of equal power.
Printer's devil, the youngest apprentice in a printing office, who runs on errands, does dirty work (as washing the ink rollers and sweeping), etc. "Without fearing the printer's devil or the sheriff's officer."
Tasmanian devil (Zool.), a very savage carnivorous marsupial of Tasmania (Dasyurus ursinus syn. Diabolus ursinus).
To play devil with, to molest extremely; to ruin. (Low)


Printer  n.  One who prints; especially, one who prints books, newspapers, engravings, etc., a compositor; a typesetter; a pressman.
Printer's devil, Printer's gauge. See under Devil, and Gauge.
Printer's ink. See Printing ink, below.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Printer's devil" Quotes from Famous Books



... golden shore promiscuous come Quacks for the lame, the blind, the deaf, the dumb; Fools are their bankers—a prolific line, And every mortal malady's a mine. Each sly Sangrado, with his poisonous pill, Flies to the printer's devil with his bill, Whose Midas touch can gild his ass's ears, And load a knave with folly's rich arrears. And lo! a second miracle is thine, For sloe-juice water stands transformed to wine. Where Day and Martin's patent blacking roll'd, Burst from the vase ...
— Rejected Addresses: or, The New Theatrum Poetarum • James and Horace Smith
... Time Journalist will tell you that the best reporter is the one who works his way up. He holds that the only way to start is as a printer's devil or as an office boy, to learn in time to set type, to graduate from a compositor into a stenographer, and as a stenographer take down speeches at public meetings, and so finally grow into a real reporter, with a fire badge on ...
— Cinderella - And Other Stories • Richard Harding Davis
... OF THE UNEMPLOYED.—"It is a curious fact," wrote the Recording Angel, a very superior sort of person to "the Printer's Devil," on the Daily Telegraph, "that in Greater London last week the births registered were just one more than twice the number of deaths. Thus grows the population in this great Babylon." Very appropriate, in this instance, ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 102, June 18, 1892 • Various
... introduce myself, in turn, as Harry Walton, junior apprentice in the office of the 'Centreville Gazette,' sometimes profanely called 'printer's devil.'" ...
— Risen from the Ranks - Harry Walton's Success • Horatio Alger, Jr.
... school, and I obeyed his praiseworthy request until visions of literary greatness and renown began to dawn upon me, whereupon, prompted by gingerbread and ambition, and being moreover aided and abetted by another printer's devil of tender years and literary aspirations, I, one Sunday morning, entered the printing office, (of which I kept the key,) and assisted by my companion, set up and worked off one hundred copies of a diminutive periodical just six inches square, containing a very brief abstract ...
— My Life: or the Adventures of Geo. Thompson - Being the Auto-Biography of an Author. Written by Himself. • George Thompson


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