A mischievous or malevolent creature or spirit, sometimes depicted as a kind of demon or devilish being.
Compound of 'hell' and 'kite,' where 'kite' derives from Old English and referred to a bird of prey, later metaphorically used for cunning or predatory creatures and people.
Medieval and Elizabethan writers combined 'hell' with animal names to create vivid insults—'hellkite' appears in Shakespeare as a sharply evocative way to describe someone cruel or wickedly clever.
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