Contextualizebeta

mischief

noun
/ˈmɪsˌt͡ʃiːf/UK/ˈmɪs.t͡ʃɪf/CA

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”).

  1. derived from caput — “head”
  2. derived from meschief
  3. inherited from myschef

Definitions

  1. Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

    • Drink led to mischief.

  2. A playfully annoying action.

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

  3. A group or a pack of rats.

    • 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.
    • 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. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. Harm or injury

      Harm or injury:

      • She had mischief in her heart.
      • Sooner or later he'll succeed in doing some serious mischief.
      • Was I the Cauſe of Miſchief, or the Man / Whoſe lawlesſ Luſt the bloody War began?

    2. A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including…

      A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.

    3. A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.

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

    4. The Devil

      The Devil; used as an expletive.

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

    5. Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.

    6. To do a mischief to

      To do a mischief to; to harm.

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

    7. To slander.

      • 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.

The neighborhood

Derived

do oneself a mischief, malicious mischief, mischiefful, mischiefless, mischief-maker, mischiefmaking, mischief rule, mischievous, mischievously, mischievousness, play the mischief with

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at mischief. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01mischief02rats03disbelief04inability05powerlessness06character07story08fictional09elements10danger

A definitional loop anchored at mischief. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at mischief

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA