mischief means conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance. It carries an Arena rating of 1961, earned across 38 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mischief ranks #1,865 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,019 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,868 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,721 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
mischief is pronounced /ˈmɪsˌt͡ʃiːf/.
Why “mischief” is a great word
Behavior or action, especially of a playful or teasing nature, that causes minor annoyance or trouble. From Middle English myschef, from Old French meschief ("misfortune"), from meschever ("to come to grief"), from mes- ("badly") + chever ("to come to a head, happen"), from Vulgar Latin *capare, from Latin caput ("head"). Unlike "decorum," which dignifies propriety and good taste, or "destruction," which implies severe and irreversible ruin, mischief is a contained eruption, a minor detonation of social order. It is the whoopee cushion on the chairman's seat, the garden hose left slyly running, the carefully balanced bucket of confetti atop a slightly-ajar door—a testament to the human spirit's irreverent need to tickle the ribs of a too-serious world.
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”).
noun
- Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.e.g.“Drink led to mischief.”
- A playfully annoying action.e.g.“John's mischief, tying his shoelaces together, irked George at first.”
- A group or a pack of rats.e.g.“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.” — 2014, G. W. Rennie, The Rat Chronicles, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 21:
- Harm or injury:; Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.e.g.“She had mischief in her heart.”
- Harm or injury:; An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.e.g.“It may end in her doing a great mischief to herself—and perhaps to others too.”
- A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.
- A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.
- The Devil; used as an expletive.e.g.“What the mischief are you? and how the mischief did you get here, and where in thunder did you come from?” — 1967, The Statesman, volume 12, page 260:
- Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.
verb
- To do a mischief to; to harm.e.g.“"Not now, Smee," Hook said darkly. "He is only one, and I want to mischief all the seven. Scatter and look for them."” — 1911, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “The Island Come True”, in Peter and Wendy, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 86:
- To slander.e.g.“And so it hath been divers times; Men mischiefing the Jews to excuse their own Wickedness: as to instance one Precedent in the time of a certain King of Portugal.” — 1708, John Dunton, The Phenix, page 403:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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