Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Behavior that causes annoyance or difficulty:
- noun Damage, destruction, or injury caused by a specific person or thing.
- noun Archaic A specific injury or harm done.
- noun The inclination or tendency to play pranks or get into trouble.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To hurt; harm; ruin.
- To come to harm or misfortune; miscarry.
- noun A harmful or troublesome event, circumstance, or contingency; an action or occurrence attended with evil or vexation; an annoying, frustrating, or hurtful state or condition of things; misfortune; calamity: used with much latitude of application: as, some one is making mischief; the mischief is that he cannot keep his temper.
- noun The act, state, course, or disposition of causing annoyance, trouble, or harm; vexatious or injurious operation or tendency; the working of damage or disaster: as, the clouds bode mischief; what mischief is he up to now? often used in a kindly or playful sense, or for affectionate excuse: as, the lad is full of mischief, but not vicious.
- noun One who or that which does harm or causes injury or vexation; a source of trouble or annoyance: as, that child is a mischief.
- noun Annoyance, injury, or damage caused or produced; harm; hurt: as, to do mischief; irremediable mischief: now never used in the plural.
- noun The devil. [Colloq.]
- noun Synonyms Damage, Harm, etc. See
injury .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Harm; damage; esp., disarrangement of order; trouble or vexation caused by human agency or by some living being, intentionally or not; often, calamity, mishap; trivial evil caused by thoughtlessness, or in sport.
- noun Cause of trouble or vexation; trouble.
- noun to be doing harm or causing annoyance.
- noun to do mischief, especially by exciting quarrels.
- noun [Colloq.] to cause great harm; to throw into confusion.
- transitive verb obsolete To do harm to.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Harm or evil caused by an
agent or brought about by a particular cause. - noun One who causes mischief. In a milder sense, one who causes petty annoyances. mischief-maker.
- noun
Vexatious or annoying conduct.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others
- noun the quality or nature of being harmful or evil
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I. v.51 (423, 6) You wait on nature's mischief!] _Nature's mischief_ is mischief done to nature, violation of nature's order committed by wickedness.
Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746
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Sometimes the things he did in the house were what we call mischief because they annoy us, such as hammering the woodwork to pieces, tearing bits out of the leaves of books, working holes in chair seats, or pounding a cardboard box to pieces.
Types of Children's Literature Walter Barnes
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Sometimes the things he did in the house were what we call mischief because they annoy us, such as hammering the woodwork to pieces, tearing bits out of the leaves of books, working holes in chair seats, or pounding a cardboard box to pieces.
Good Stories for Holidays Frances Jenkins Olcott 1917
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Sometimes the things he did in the house were what we call mischief because they annoy us, such as hammering the woodwork to pieces, tearing bits out of the leaves of books, working holes in chair seats, or pounding a cardboard box to pieces.
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The one compensation for all this mischief is the rich additions to the apologetical and critical literature of the books of the New Testament, and the earliest history of the Christian Church, which it has drawn from the pens of Thiersch, Ebrard, and many others.
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And there was more yet of what we call mischief brewing in another quarter to like hurt.
What's Mine's Mine — Complete George MacDonald 1864
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And there was more yet of what we call mischief brewing in another quarter to like hurt.
What's Mine's Mine — Volume 2 George MacDonald 1864
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And the mischief is the greater, and the ground the more cumbered, if it be a high, large, spreading tree, and if it be an old tree of long standing.
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume V (Matthew to John) 1721
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His barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, suggested his client was not alone in creating what he described as "mischief" in the egg industry.
The Guardian World News Helen Pidd 2010
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What's your evidence that "mischief" is more rife in neuroscience than in physics?
The Memory Hole 2005
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In past years, I’ve managed my mischief—yup, a group of rats is called a mischief—with snap traps.
bilby commented on the word mischief
Etymology back to caput!
February 20, 2018