Jan 242005
“Like the Dickens”
Meaning
A lot; as in ‘hurts like the dickens’.
Origin
Nothing to do with Charles Dickens. Dickens is a euphemism for the word devil, possibly via devilkins. Shakespeare used it in ‘the Merry Wives of Windsor: ‘I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of.’
from http://www.phrases.org.uk/
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