mischief
Americannoun
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conduct or activity that playfully causes petty annoyance.
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a tendency or disposition to tease, vex, or annoy.
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a vexatious or annoying action.
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harm or trouble, especially as a result of an agent or cause.
- Synonyms:
- hurt
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an injury or evil caused by a person or other agent or cause.
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a cause or source of harm, evil, or annoyance.
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the devil.
noun
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wayward but not malicious behaviour, usually of children, that causes trouble, irritation, etc
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a playful inclination to behave in this way or to tease or disturb
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injury or harm caused by a person or thing
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a person, esp a child, who is mischievous
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a source of trouble, difficulty, etc
floods are a great mischief to the farmer
Related Words
See damage.
Etymology
Origin of mischief
1250–1300; Middle English meschef < Old French, noun derivative of meschever to end badly, come to grief. See mis- 1, achieve
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.
The Fantastikals, representing nature and the elements, provide a sense of wonder and mischief.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 10, 2026
In the early ’90s, a distinct penchant for mischief and a grittily glamorous New York edge quickly earned Jacobs the moniker of fashion’s bad boy.
From Salon • Mar. 27, 2026
“We see potential for seasonal-adjustment mischief in the January data,” said Richard Moody, chief U.S. economist at Regions Financial.
From MarketWatch • Feb. 8, 2026
Although there is scarcely a reader of history unaware of the widely rumored affair between Edwina Mountbatten—the viceroy’s wife—and Jawaharlal Nehru, that most worldly of Indian anti-imperialists, Mr. Dalrymple repackages it with jaunty mischief.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026
Stanton would have invited Anthony and Bloomer over for dinner, she wrote, but she didn’t know what kind of mischief her children had been up to in her absence.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
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.
