prankster
Americannoun
-
pranksters
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
The possibility that it was a prankster on the radio may not be 0%.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 11, 2026
With that in mind, the shadow cockroach “Angels” projects into your kitchen may be just a bit of Peter Pan-esque play from an inveterate digital prankster.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025
An internet prankster has been charged by police after appearing with the Australia team before their rugby league game against England on Saturday.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2025
He is his own niche, a prankster who holds up a funhouse mirror to humanity and makes you wonder if the resultant image is more revealing than a normal one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
“Listen: ‘The incident happened shortly before sunrise, when an unknown prankster sneaked up to the patrol car, a 2001 Crown Victoria, and spray-painted the windows with black paint.’”
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Naive, blundering hobbyists and reckless pranksters can also veer into restricted airspace, setting off alarms and potentially shutting down airport traffic.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2025
But like generations of pilgrims, dropouts, and merry pranksters before him, what he discovered on that journey was his mission.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2025
In recent years, police have been also cracking down on pranksters who have committed "sushi terrorism" in sushi conveyor belt restaurants, such as licking communal soy sauce bottles and squashing sushi meant for diners.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2025
It could also be Bermuda, Elon Musk, teenage pranksters, the U.S.
From Slate ● Dec. 14, 2024
Sancho was right; the pranksters were blowing air from bellows to make the riders believe they were flying.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
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.
