Meaning of the devil a one | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Not a single one, none (of a number of people or things).
   dated, idiomatic, regional, slang
2. Not; with a singular pronoun, negates the clause.
   dated, idiomatic, regional, slang

Examples

“making great chear with a good deal of vineger, the devil a one of them did forbear from his victuals, it was a triumphant and incomparable spectacle to see how they ravened and devoured.”

“[…] she wou’d have corrupted all their Wives; the Devil a one wou’d have made her own Butter, after being acquainted with her.”

“(He helps them on with the clothes.) There, the devil a one of them can know you now— […] you’re so nicely disguised,”

“Whole volleys of muskets were level’d at him, But the devil a one ever graz’d e’en a limb,”

“1912, George A. Birmingham, Priscilla’s Spies, New York: Hodder and Stoughton, G.H. Doran, Chapter 14, pp. 183-184, Jimmy says it’s hard to tell what she’d be after. He did think at the first go off that it might be cockles; but it’s not, for he took her to Carribee strand, where there’s plenty of them, and the devil a one she’d pick up.”

“The devil a one of me will ever set foot there.”

“[…] I met just as strange a man, and he sitting on his hat on the banks of the Fairy Lake of Lisnavarna, watching the moon’s reflection in the clear waters, and the devil a one of him knew that he was contrary at all.”

CEFR level