Mephistopheles
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- Mephistophelean adjective
- Mephistophelian adjective
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Railroad magnate and speculator Jay Gould was dubbed “the Mephistopheles of Wall Street” by ministers on the pulpit.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 2, 2025
But the old stories of the magicians and their bargains, of Faust and his Mephistopheles, suggest that we would be wise to fear apparent obedience as well.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 3, 2023
Höfgen’s most acclaimed role — and yes, he’s talented — is as the demon Mephistopheles in Goethe’s “Faust,” who persuades the hero to sell his soul in return for worldly wealth, status and pleasure.
From New York Times • Sep. 11, 2020
He is playing Mephistopheles, the women are interpreting the child-devouring Lamia of Greek myth, and I’m watching day 13 of an unlikely and wildly ambitious film shoot.
From The Guardian • Jul. 16, 2018
His eyebrows rise a little, like those of Mephistopheles, towards his temples, with an expression that is inflexibly sarcastic, and sometimes menacing.
From Checkmate by Le Fanu, Joseph Sheridan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
