The phrase "a devious mind" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe someone who is cunning, deceitful, or has a tendency to manipulate situations for their own advantage.
Example: "The detective suspected that the suspect had a devious mind, capable of outsmarting even the most experienced investigators."
Alternatives: "a cunning intellect" or "a sly disposition".
Graeme, who has a devious mind, said it would depend on the tag-turning.
But it doesn't take a devious mind to imagine that plenty will use it as an excuse to force more people to check luggage into the hold.
A devious mind might suggest that, even if it makes no difference who owns Unocal, the deal ought to be blocked just to inconvenience China.
But because a devious mind is manipulating the genre conventions — allowing unpredictable characters rather than precision-tooled action to drive his story — the rules of the game are constantly changing.
This kind of puzzle offers cryptic clues instead of bald definitions, and the pleasures involved in solving it are the deeply satisfactory ones of following and matching a devious mind (that of the puzzle's author) rather than the transitory ones of an encyclopedic memory".
When I decided that I would try for some sort of retirement job in crossword setting, I quickly realised that there was a lot more to it than having a devious mind: there were rules and conventions to be understood and a way to be found around what were evidently quite polarised stances in the crossword business regarding style.
Such a stunt would take a dedicatedly devious mind.
Baer was delighted to work for Clarridge, who had an inventive and devious mind.
We have met this devious mind and it is a creation of Richard Stark, who applies his great wit and dexterous mental skills to a series of such ingenious exits and entrances in (what else?) BREAKOUT (Mysterious Press/Warner, $23.95).
As Ivy attempts by hook or crook to land the Monroe part, Hilty is an expert at letting viewers see her devious mind working overtime.
Created by the same devious mind that mixed peanut butter with jelly, Oreos with milk, and rum with Coke, few things close a day better than a campfire, marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers.
