Mephistopheles

Definitions

1. The Devil to whom Faust sold his soul in the legend.
2. A fiendish person, especially one who tricks someone into following a destructive or disastrous course of action; a tempter.

Equivalents

Examples

“I let⟳ him run⟳ on, this papier-maché Mephistopheles, and it seemed to me that if I tried I could poke my forefinger through him, and find⟳ nothing inside but a little loose dirt, maybe.”

“When I'm at the pearly gates / This'll be on my videotape, my videotape / When Mephistopheles is just beneath / And he's reaching up to grab⟳ me”

“Poison in my idle mind⟳ makes quick work⟳ for the Mephistopheles, / Who quickly makes his excuses”

“A man weeping in moral torment over bags of money; another so bored, depressed and isolated that he can barely raise⟳ his eyes to yet another shopping cart full of cash. These are the products of what I have⟳ come⟳ to think⟳ of as Donaldson in full Mephistopheles mode. “Look⟳ what these creatures of flesh and blood will do for cash,” he seems constantly on the verge of intoning, as he observes his subjects like⟳ so many mazed rats.”

CEFR level