dear vs devil

dear

noun
  • A beloved person. 

  • An affectionate, familiar term of address, such as used between husband and wife. 

  • A very kind, loving person. 

  • An elderly person, especially a woman. 

adj
  • A formal way to start (possibly after my) addressing somebody at the beginning of a letter, memo etc. 

  • Loving, affectionate, heartfelt 

  • Loved; lovable. 

  • Precious to or greatly valued by someone. 

  • An ironic way to start (often after my) addressing an inferior. 

  • Lovely; kind. 

  • A formal way to start (often after my) addressing somebody one likes or regards kindly. 

  • High in price; expensive. 

  • Severe, or severely affected; sore. 

adv
  • Dearly; at a high price. 

devil

noun
  • A wicked or naughty person, or one who harbors reckless, spirited energy, especially in a mischievous way; usually said of a young child. 

  • A barren, unproductive and unused area. 

  • A Tasmanian devil. 

  • A printer's assistant. Also (India) "a poltergeist that haunts printing works". 

  • A dish, as a bone with the meat, broiled and excessively peppered; a grill with Cayenne pepper. 

  • A fictional image of a man, usually red or orange in skin color; with a set of horns on his head, a pointed goatee and a long tail and carrying a pitchfork; that represents evil and portrayed to children in an effort to discourage bad behavior. 

  • A person, especially a man; used to express a particular opinion of him, usually in the phrases poor devil and lucky devil. 

  • A dust devil. 

  • A machine for tearing or cutting rags, cotton, etc. 

  • An endurance event where riders who fall behind are periodically eliminated. 

  • An evil creature, the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. 

  • The bad part of the conscience; the opposite to the angel. 

  • Hell. 

  • A thing that is awkward or difficult to understand or do. 

name
  • The chief devil; Satan. 

verb
  • To work as a ‘devil’; to work for a lawyer or writer without fee or recognition. 

  • To prepare a sidedish of shelled halved boiled eggs to whose extracted yolks are added condiments and spices, which mixture then is placed into the halved whites to be served. 

  • To make like a devil; to invest with the character of a devil. 

  • To annoy or bother. 

  • To grill with cayenne pepper; to season highly in cooking, as with pepper. 

  • To finely grind cooked ham or other meat with spices and condiments. 

How often have the words dear and devil occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )