Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Causing mischief.
- adj. Playful in a naughty or teasing way.
- adj. Troublesome; irritating: a mischievous prank.
- adj. Causing harm, injury, or damage: mischievous rumors and falsehoods.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Producing or tending to produce mischief or harm; injurious; deleterious; hurtful.
- Fond of mischief; full of tricks; teasing or troublesome: as, a mischievous boy.
- Synonyms Destructive, detrimental. See injury.
- Roguish.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Causing mischief; harmful; hurtful; -- now often applied where the evil is done carelessly or in sport.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. deliberately causing harm or damage
- adj. naughtily or annoyingly playful
Etymologies
- From Anglo-Norman meschevous, from Old French meschever, from mes- ("mis-") + chever ("come to an end") (from chef ("head")). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English mischevous, from mischef, mischief; see mischief. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Palmer looked at Ariana, his expression mischievous, and popped another piece of gum into his mouth.”
“Of course, many of her own things had taken to hiding in mischievous, little places as well.”
“One of the highlights of his set yesterday was the title track, a study in mischievous innuendo.”
Jazzfest: Going Crazy With John Boutté - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com
“Dave mentioned the vocabulary words she offers up during brainstorming sessions and how she this morning suggested the word mischievous and then offered to spell it for him.”
On challenging my youngest child « The Life and Times of Organic Mama
“She did not draw it away until he had raised it to his lips, when she told him in mischievous tones to bring her a rose from Hades.”
“He looked at her, and made his expression mischievous, or meant to make it.”
“If the force of the disease made him to fall, the malice of the devil made him to fall into the fire or water; so mischievous is he where he gains possession and power in any soul.”
“Saraki also appealed to those he called mischievous people who wanted to use the present situation to cause problem to stop, saying this is about all of us.”
“Then I had 'im right whar I wanted' im, an 'I up an' told 'im that I had a wife that was all the world to me, an' that durin 'my term mischievous folks had lied ag'in me an' persuaded 'er to git a divorce, an' that a oily - tongued scamp was a-tryin 'to marry' er fer what little land she had.”
“Now that everyone has e-mail, it’s simply too easy for messages to be bcc’d or forwarded in mischievous ways.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mischievous’.
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Fairylike
fairylike, enchanted, pixieish, pixyish, impish, mischievous, fluttery, magical, bewitching, enchanting, fey, otherworldly and 126 more...
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EN - eesily missspellable wirds
accessible, accommodate, achievement, acquaintance, address, advertisement, alleged, athletics, attendance, auxiliary, believe, challenge and 118 more...
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Describing People
eye, hair, mouth, nose, tooth, head, face, arm, hand, finger, lip, leg and 212 more...
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Rogue
Terms describing roguish persons.
hellcat, she-devil, depraved, blackguard, rapscallion, knave, rascal, blasphemer, heretic, sinner, damnable, ne'er-do-well and 8 more...
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mis-
wrongly; badly; unsuitably
misname, mismanage, misapply, misanthrope, miscalculate, mistake, mistook, misstep, misdirect, misfortune, misadventure, misalign and 22 more...
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Harmful
quick, hurtful, ruinous, noxious, destructive, deadly, mischievous, deleterious, baneful, injurious, baleful, malicious and 24 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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Spelling Conundrum
mischievous, confidant, cinch, befuddle, assailant, alleviate, coax, surreptitious, myriad
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♏ Mischievous tidbits ♏
Just those skew words wherein craftiness propagates.
shenanigans, malicious, feisty, rebellious, hullabaloo, shifty-eyed, crafty, mischievous, ragamuffins, goons
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lavendargrrl's Words
surfeit, radiant, sussuration, sustenance, authenticity, aching, solitude, solicitous, limerance, compersion, philanthropy, mystery and 108 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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Descriptive
The present, the future. Goals, wishes, hopes.
capricious, sericeous, sleek, flawless, charming, skilled, long-haired, versatile, beautiful, witty, fair, thin and 145 more...
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And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
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Apples to Apples: Green Cards
A complete list of the green cards (adjectives) from the popular word game.
absurd, addictive, adorable, aged, American, ancient, animated, annoying, appetizing, arrogant, awesome, awkward and 237 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mischievous.
milosrdenstvi Three syllables only. Nov 8, 2009
pedalinfaith It would be mischievous of you to pronounce this word miss-CHEE-vee-us when you know how much I hate that. Dec 8, 2006