ALL meanings of demon
de·mon
D d - countable noun demon A demon is an evil spirit. 3
- countable noun demon Sources of worry or conflict which trouble a person or group of people are sometimes referred to as demons. 3
- countable noun demon If you approve of someone because they are very skilled at what they do or because they do it energetically, you can say that they do it like a demon. 3
- countable noun demon If you refer to a powerful person such as a politician as a demon, you mean that you believe they are bad and might be dangerous. 3
- noun demon an evil spirit or devil 3
- noun demon a person, habit, obsession, etc, thought of as evil, cruel, or persistently tormenting 3
- noun demon an attendant or ministering spirit; genius 3
- noun demon a person who is extremely skilful in, energetic at, or devoted to a given activity, esp a sport 3
- noun demon (as modifier) 3
- noun demon a detective or policeman 3
- noun demon a part of a computer program, such as a help facility, that can run in the background behind the current task or application, and which will only begin to work when certain conditions are met or when it is specifically invoked 3
- noun demon daemon (sense 1) daemon (sense 2) 3
- noun demon a devil; evil spirit 3
- noun demon a person or thing regarded as evil, cruel, etc. 3
- noun demon a person who has great energy or skill 3
- noun demon an enthusiast or devotee 3
- noun Technical meaning of demon 1. (operating system) (Often used equivalently to daemon, especially in the Unix world, where the latter spelling and pronunciation is considered mildly archaic). A program or part of a program which is not invoked explicitly, but that lies dormant waiting for some condition(s) to occur. At MIT they use "demon" for part of a program and "daemon" for an operating system process. Demons (parts of programs) are particularly common in AI programs. For example, a knowledge-manipulation program might implement inference rules as demons. Whenever a new piece of knowledge was added, various demons would activate (which demons depends on the particular piece of data) and would create additional pieces of knowledge by applying their respective inference rules to the original piece. These new pieces could in turn activate more demons as the inferences filtered down through chains of logic. Meanwhile, the main program could continue with whatever its primary task was. This is similar to the triggers used in relational databases. The use of this term may derive from "Maxwell's Demons" - minute beings which can reverse the normal flow of heat from a hot body to a cold body by only allowing fast moving molecules to go from the cold body to the hot one and slow molecules from hot to cold. The solution to this apparent thermodynamic paradox is that the demons would require an external supply of energy to do their work and it is only in the absence of such a supply that heat must necessarily flow from hot to cold. Walt Bunch believes the term comes from the demons in Oliver Selfridge's paper "Pandemonium", MIT 1958, which was named after the capital of Hell in Milton's "Paradise Lost". Selfridge likened neural cells firing in response to input patterns to the chaos of millions of demons shrieking in Pandemonium. 2. (company) Demon Internet Ltd. 3. A program generator for differential equation problems. 1
- noun demon devil, evil spirit 1
- noun plural demon personal problems 1
- noun demon evil person 1
- noun demon energetic person 1
- noun demon An evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell. 1
- noun demon an evil spirit; devil or fiend. 1
- noun demon an evil passion or influence. 1
- noun demon a person considered extremely wicked, evil, or cruel. 1
- noun demon a person with great energy, drive, etc.: He's a demon for work. 1
- noun demon a person, especially a child, who is very mischievous: His younger son is a real little demon. 1
- abbreviation DEMON daemon. 1
- noun demon Australian Slang. a policeman, especially a detective. 1
- adjective demon of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or noting a demon. 1
- adjective demon possessed or controlled by a demon. 1
- noun demon A fallen angel or Satanic divinity; a false god. 0
- noun demon One’s inner spirit or genius, a daimon. 0
- noun demon (Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A genius, a lar, the protective spirit or godling of a place, household, or individual. 0
- noun demon A foible; a flaw in a person’s character. 0
- noun demon Someone of remarkable or diabolical energy or ability. 0
- noun demon (figuratively) Anything with malevolent effects. 0