prankster
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of prankster
Explanation
A prankster is someone who loves to play tricks or practical jokes. If your house gets rolled in the night, a prankster hung toilet paper all over the trees in your yard. Congratulations? To be a prankster, you need a mischievous sense of humor and enough imagination to dream up practical jokes. You could glue a ten-dollar bill to the floor, change your sister's computer settings to Portuguese, or leave your fake bug collection on your teacher's chair. These tricks or hoaxes are also called pranks, the origin of prankster, which probably stems from the obsolete verb prank, "decorate or dress up."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Prankster Paige Ginn shocked her 300,000 Instagram followers on Tuesday in a video where she appears to reveal the gender of her baby by passing gas.
From Fox News • Nov. 14, 2019
Prankster Netflix is, of course, the home of "Fuller House," the continuation of the Stamos-starring sitcom "Full House," which includes any handful of visits from Uncle Jesse.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2016
Now a showdown between the Socialist and the Merry Prankster doesn’t look so unlikely at all.
From Washington Times • Jan. 21, 2016
Prankster Vladimir Krasnov admitted his involvement, telling the BBC and Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that he made the call with his sidekick Alexei Stolyarov, known as "Lexus".
From BBC • Sep. 24, 2015
In that 1995 tribute article, the Merry Prankster Ken Kesey tried to explain what it was that made Garcia singular:
From Time • May 14, 2015
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
