mischief

mischief
/mis"chif/, n.
1. conduct or activity that playfully causes petty annoyance.
2. a tendency or disposition to tease, vex, or annoy.
3. a vexatious or annoying action.
4. harm or trouble, esp. as a result of an agent or cause.
5. an injury or evil caused by a person or other agent or cause.
6. a cause or source of harm, evil, or annoyance.
7. the devil.
[1250-1300; ME meschef < OF, n. deriv. of meschever to end badly, come to grief. See MIS-1, ACHIEVE]
Syn. 4. hurt. See damage.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • mischief — I noun annoyance, criminality, cruelty, damage, damnum, danger, detriment, devilment, deviltry, disservice, evil, evil conduct, fault, foul play, frolicsomeness, harm, harmful action, hurt, ill consequence, impishness, incommodum, infliction,… …   Law dictionary

  • Mischief — Mis chief (m[i^]s ch[i^]f), n. [OE. meschef bad result, OF. meschief; pref. mes (L. minus less) + chief end, head, F. chef chief. See {Minus}, and {Chief}.] [1913 Webster] 1. Harm; damage; esp., disarrangement of order; trouble or vexation caused …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • mischief — ► NOUN 1) playful misbehaviour. 2) harm or injury caused by someone or something. ● do someone a mischief Cf. ↑do someone a mischief ORIGIN Old French meschief, from meschever come to an unfortunate end …   English terms dictionary

  • mischief — (n.) c.1300, evil condition, misfortune, need, want, from O.Fr. meschief misfortune, harm, trouble; annoyance, vexation (12c., Mod.Fr. méchef), verbal noun from meschever come or bring to grief, be unfortunate (opposite of achieve), from mes… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Mischief — Mis chief, v. t. To do harm to. [Obs.] Milton. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • mischief — *injury, hurt, damage, harm Analogous words: perniciousness, detrimentalness or detriment, deleteriousness, noxiousness, banefulness or bane (see corresponding adjectives at PERNICIOUS): *evil, ill: impairment, marring, spoiling (see… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • mischief — [n] trouble, damage atrocity, catastrophe, devilment, devilry, dirty trick*, evil, fault, friskiness, frolicsomeness, funny business*, gag, harm, high jinks*, hurt, ill, impishness, injury, misbehavior, mischievousness, misconduct, misdoing,… …   New thesaurus

  • mischief — [mis′chif] n. [ME meschief < OFr < meschever, to come to grief < mes (see MIS 1) + chever, come to a head < chief, end, head (see CHIEF)] 1. harm, damage, or injury, esp. that done by a person 2. a cause or source of harm, damage, or… …   English World dictionary

  • Mischief — For other uses, see Mischief (disambiguation). H. Brückner, Mischief (1874) Mischief is a vexatious or annoying action, or, conduct or activity that playfully causes petty annoyance. Young children, when they hear of mischief, think of practical… …   Wikipedia

  • mischief — n. 1) to cause, do, make mischief 2) to be up to, get into mischief 3) malicious mischief 4) out of mischief (to stay out of mischief; to keep children out of mischief) 5) full of mischief 6) up to mischief * * * [ mɪstʃɪf] do get into mischief… …   Combinatory dictionary

  • mischief — mis|chief [ mıstʃıf ] noun uncount behavior or play, especially of children, that causes trouble but not serious harm to other people: be up to/get up to mischief (=do something bad): The boys are always up to some kind of mischief! get into… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”