Dictionaries › English

mischief

Pronunciation: /ˈmɪsˌt͡ʃiːf/

The English word “mischief” has 11 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.
  2. A playfully annoying action.
  3. A nest or pack of mice or rats.
  4. Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.
  5. An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.
  6. A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.
  7. A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.
  8. The Devil; used as an expletive.
  9. Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.

verb

  1. To do a mischief to; to harm.
  2. To slander.

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”).

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “mischief” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.