Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A mischievous trick or practical joke.
- v. To decorate or dress ostentatiously or gaudily.
- v. To make an ostentatious display.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To decorate; adorn; deck; especially, to deck out in a showy manner.
- To adjust; set in order.
- To present a showy or gaudy appearance; make a brilliant show.
- To be crafty or subtle.
- n. A playful or mischievous act; a trick played sometimes in malice, but more commonly in sport; an escapade; a gambol.
- n. Synonyms Whim, etc. (see freak), antic, vagary.
- Frolicsome; mischievous.
Wiktionary
- n. An evil deed; a malicious trick, an act of cruel deception.
- n. A practical joke or mischievous trick.
- v. To adorn in a showy manner; to dress or equip ostentatiously.
- v. To perform a practical joke on; to trick.
- v. To call someone's phone and promptly hang up
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To adorn in a showy manner; to dress or equip ostentatiously; -- often followed by
up . See prink. - v. To make ostentatious show.
- n. A gay or sportive action; a ludicrous, merry, or mischievous trick; a caper; a frolic.
- adj. Full of gambols or tricks.
WordNet 3.0
- v. dress or decorate showily or gaudily
- n. a ludicrous or grotesque act done for fun and amusement
- n. acting like a clown or buffoon
- v. dress up showily
Etymologies
- Origin unknown.From Middle English pranken, to show off, perhaps from Middle Dutch pronken (from pronk, show, display) and from Middle Low German prunken (from prank, display).
Examples
“Weiner compounded his predicament by calling a cable TV producer a jackass, reeling off a string of ill-advised, double-entendre wiener jokes and essentially reducing what he calls a "prank" to”
“Arenas, 28, pleaded guilty earlier in the year to violation of the district's gun laws by bringing four guns to the Verizon Center as part of what he called a prank on teammate Javaris Crittenton.”
Black Entertainment, Money, Style and Beauty Blogs - Black Voices
“Now he's a convicted felon, having been sentenced to 30 days in the halfway house for bringing guns into the locker room in December as part of what he called a prank to settle an argument over gambling debts with teammate Javaris Crittenton.”
“This kind of prank is not good for Amazon because it will scare some customers away.”
Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Reputation gaming Pat Robertson on Amazon
““This kind of prank is not good for Amazon because it will scare some customers away …” said security consultant Richard Smith … “The prank makes me also wonder how much the Amazon recommendation system is being hacked by authors and publishers as a new marketing tool,” he added.”
“Apparently, despite the availability of how-to videos on the internet, this particular prank is becoming less popular due to vast improvements in headset technology.”
Don't Hack Into The Taco Bell Drive Thru And Yell Obscenities At Customers - The Consumerist
“(Part of the affront of Phoenix's prank is that behind his vagrant's disguise, he dares to live a private life.)”
The Guardian: Joaquin Phoenix offers us a reality check on celebrity
“The favorite prank is the old stunt where we take a novice hunter out to scout around and show him/her some deer sign such as rubs, tracks, scrapes and scat.”
“* Also at MetaFilter: great moments in prank wills.”
“But what might have been dismissed as a childish end-of-term prank by passionate, over-enthusiastic campaigners became an international incident after Saudi Arabia demanded a full UN investigation and took full diplomatic advantage of the incident.”
The Guardian: Oxfam and WWF apologise for Saudi nameplate toilet prank
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘prank’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Culture Jamming
appropriate, subvertise, adbust, detournement, carnivalesque, remix, mashup, critical, protest, subvertisement, adbusting, disrupt and 45 more...
yarb Your uncle, the mercer, regaled us yesterday with a fête champêtre, and paid the piper handsomely. There were ten of the best grown boys, and ten young girls, dressed out in pastoral weeds; all the frippery in his shop was brought out to prank them up.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 2 ch. 9 Sep 13, 2008
brtom For he rolls upon prank to work it in. from Christopher Smart's Jubilate Agno ... clearly used in a more antique sense ... what is it?
and also ... Let Anna bless God with the Cat, who is worthy to be presented before the throne of grace, when he has trampled upon the idol in his prank. Dec 30, 2007