mischief
Part of speech: noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: law
Etymology: From Middle English myschef, meschef, meschief, mischef, from Old French meschief, from meschever (“to bring to grief”), from mes- (“badly”) + chever (“happen; come to a head”), from Vulgar Latin *capare, from Latin caput (“head”).
Inflected forms:
form: mischiefs
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Drink led to mischief.
gloss: A playfully annoying action.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: John's mischief, tying his shoelaces together, irked George at first.
gloss: A group or a pack of rats.
pos: noun
tags: collective
countable
uncountable
examples: Kirac, the leader of the rats under his charge, speaks to the major through his telepathic abilities that manifested after the alien virus infected him and his mischief of rats.
A group of rats is not a herd or a gaggle, but a pack or a mischief of rats. Rats in general are omnivorous, meaning they will eat almost anything.
gloss: Harm or injury:
pos: noun
tags: archaic
uncountable
examples: She had mischief in her heart.
Sooner or later he'll succeed in doing some serious mischief.
Was I the Cauſe of Miſchief, or the Man / Whoſe lawlesſ Luſt the bloody War began?
I have been tired in history with the perpetual folly of those states, who call in foreigners to assist them against a common enemy: but the mischief was, these allies would never be brought to allow, that the common enemy was quite subdued. And they had reason; for it proved at last, that one part of the common enemy was those who called them in, and so the allies became at length the masters.
Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.
I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot.
gloss: Harm or injury:
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
examples: It may end in her doing a great mischief to herself—and perhaps to others too.
[R]eligion / Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.
I will heape mischiefes vpon them, I will spend mine arrowes vpon them.
gloss: A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
examples: To die like a man of honour, Sir Hargrave, you must have lived like one. You should be sure of your cause. But these pistols are too ready a mischief. Were I to meet you in your own way, Sir Hargrave, I should not expect, that a man so enraged would fire his over my head, as I should be willing to do mine over his. Life I would not put upon the perhaps involuntary twitch of a finger.
Epimetheus was scatter-brained and a mischief to men for having taken the woman [Pandora] that Zeus had formed.
gloss: The Devil; used as an expletive.
pos: noun
tags: countable
euphemistic
uncountable
examples: What the mischief are you? and how the mischief did you get here, and where in thunder did you come from?
gloss: Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.
pos: noun
tags: Australia
countable
uncountable
Synonyms: agitation
annoyance
corruption
damage
demolition
destruction
detriment
disablement
disruption
evil
harm
hurt
ill
impairment
incapacitation
injury
nuisance
pique
ravage
sabotage
scathe
trouble
undoing
unmaking
vexation
weakening
wrong
badness
delinquincy
devilishness
devilment
devilry
deviltry
elfishness
goings-on
hanky-panky
impishness
impropriety
knavery
misbehavior
mischief
mischievousness
misconduct
misdemeanor
monkey business
naughtiness
prankishness
pranksomeness
puckishness
rascality
roguery
roguishness
scampishness
Antonyms: decorum
gentlemanliness
gentility
seemliness
sportsmanship
probity
propriety
Related words: troublemaker
evil
do evil
Derived words: do oneself a mischief
malicious mischief
mischiefful
mischiefless
mischief-maker
mischiefmaking
mischief rule
mischievous
mischievously
mischievousness
play the mischief with
Translations: