'the very dickens"

[arlo]

Hi.

While I was reading, I found a phrase "the very dickens".

The sentence is ; She worked like the very dickens.

I think this has something to do with the writer 'Dickens' but can't guess exactly what it means. Of course, I looked for these words in google and found plenty of different usages.

I'd appreciate if you helped my understanding with some more examples and explanation.

gyeyoung from Korean.

[trustM]

"The dickens" is an informal expression, especially British English, used for adding force to an expression and it means "the devil".