mischief

English

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”).

Pronunciation

• (US, UK (South)) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs.t͡ʃɪf/, /ˈmɪʃ.t͡ʃɪf/

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• Rhymes: -ɪstʃɪf
• (UK, Midlands and North) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪs.t͡ʃiːf/, /ˈmɪʃ.t͡ʃiːf/
• Rhymes: -ɪstʃiːf

Noun

mischief (countable and uncountable, plural mischiefs)

1. (uncountable) Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

   Synonyms: delinquency, naughtiness, roguery, scampishness; see also Thesaurus:villainy, Thesaurus:mischief

   Drink led to mischief.

2. (countable) A playfully annoying action.

   John's mischief, tying his shoelaces together, irked George at first.

3. (collective) A group or a pack of rats.
   • 2014, G. W. Rennie, The Rat Chronicles, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 21:

     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.

   • 2015, Rachel Smith, John Davidson, Rats For Kids, Mendon Cottage Books, →ISBN, page 6:

     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.

4. (archaic) Harm or injury:
   1. (uncountable) Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.

      She had mischief in her heart.

      Sooner or later he'll succeed in doing some serious mischief.

      • 1697, Virgil, “The Tenth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, page 502, lines 139–140:

        Was I the Cauſe of Miſchief, or the Man / Whoſe lawlesſ Luſt the bloody War began?

      • 1718 December 15 (Gregorian calendar), Jonathan Swift, “A Letter Concerning the Sacramental Test”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, , new edition, volume IV, London: J Johnson, , published 1801, →OCLC, page 435:

        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.

      • 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 8, in Emma: , volume I, London: for John Murray, →OCLC:

        Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.

      • 1914 September – 1915 May, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 1, in The Valley of Fear: A Sherlock Holmes Novel, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 27 February 1915, →OCLC:

        I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot.

   2. (countable) An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.

      It may end in her doing a great mischief to herself—and perhaps to others too.

      • c. 1589–1590 (date written), Christopher Marlo[we], edited by Tho[mas] Heywood, The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Iew of Malta. , London: I B for Nicholas Vavasour, , published 1633, →OCLC, Act I:

        [R]eligion / Hides many mischiefs from suspicion.

      • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Deuteronomy 32:23:

        I will heape mischiefes vpon them, I will spend mine arrowes vpon them.

5. (law) A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.
6. (archaic, countable) A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.

   Synonyms: bad boy, knave, rapscallion, rascal, rogue; see also Thesaurus:villain, Thesaurus:troublemaker

   • 1753 (indicated as 1754), [Samuel Richardson], The History of Sir Charles Grandison. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: S Richardson; nd sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes, , →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1993, Carlos Parada, Genealogic Guide to Greek Mythology‎, page 71:

     Epimetheus was scatter-brained and a mischief to men for having taken the woman [Pandora] that Zeus had formed.

7. (euphemistic) The Devil; used as an expletive.
   • 1967, The Statesman, volume 12, page 260:

     What the mischief are you? and how the mischief did you get here, and where in thunder did you come from?

8. (Australia) Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.

Synonyms

• (harm or injury): 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

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

mischief (third-person singular simple present mischiefs, present participle mischiefing, simple past and past participle mischiefed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To do a mischief to; to harm.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, page 144:

     […] so, when the two ladders were taken down, no man living could come down to me without mischiefing himself, […]

   • 1911, James Matthew Barrie, Peter and Wendy, page 86:

     'Not now, Smee,' Hook said darkly. 'He is only one, and I want to mischief all the seven. Scatter and look for them.'

2. (transitive, obsolete) To slander.
   • 1708, John Dunton, The Phenix, page 403:

     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.

Translations

Further reading

• “mischief”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• Mischief in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

Middle English

Noun

mischief

1. Alternative form of myschef