mischief

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”)

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɪstʃɪf/, /ˈmɪʃtʃɪf/

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• Rhymes: -ɪstʃɪf

mischief (countable and uncountable, plural mischiefs)

1. Petty annoyance:
   1. (uncountable) Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

      Drink led to mischief.

   2. (countable) A playfully annoying action.

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

2. (archaic) Harm or injury:
   1. (uncountable) Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.

      She had mischief in her heart.

      • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, Volume I, Chapter 8:

        Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.

      • 1915, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 1, in The Valley of Fear:

        I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot.

      Sooner or later he'll succeed in doing some serious mischief.

   2. (countable) An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.

      It may end in her doing a great mischief to herself—and perhaps to others too.

3. (archaic) Cause or agent of annoyance, harm, or injury:
   1. (countable) A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury,
      • 1753, Samuel Richardson, The History of Sir Charles Grandison:

        To die like a man of honour, Sir Hargrave, you must have lived like one. You should be sure of your cause. But these pistols are too ready a mischief. Were I to meet you in your own way, Sir Hargrave, I should not expect, that a man so enraged would fire his over my head, as I should be willing to do mine over his. Life I would not put upon the perhaps involuntary twitch of a finger.

      1. especially, a person who causes mischief.
         • 1993, Carlos Parada, Genealogic Guide to Greek Mythology, page 71:

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

4. (collective) A group or a pack of rats.
   • 2015, Rachel Smith, John Davidson, Rats For Kids, Mendon Cottage Books →ISBN, page 6

     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.

   • 2014, G. W. Rennie, The Rat Chronicles, iUniverse →ISBN, page 21

     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.

• (evil): agitation, annoyance, corruption, damage, demolition, destruction, detriment, disablement, disruption, evil, harm, hurt, ill, impairment, incapacitation, injury, nuisance, pique, ravage, sabotage, scathe, trouble, undoing, unmaking, vexation, weakening, wrong
• (person who causes mischief): bad boy, knave, rapscallion, rascal, rogue; See also Thesaurus:villain and Thesaurus:troublemaker
• (annoying conduct): delinquincy, naughtiness, roguery, scampishness; See also Thesaurus:villainy and Thesaurus:mischief

• mischief at OneLook Dictionary Search

mischief

1. Alternative form of myschef