Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A rogue; a rascal.
- n. A mischievous youngster.
- v. To perform in a careless superficial way.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To execute in superficial manner; perform in a careless, slip-shod, dishonest, or perfunctory manner: as, to scamp work.
- n. A fugitive or vagabond; a worthless fellow; a swindler; a mean villain; a rascal; a rogue.
- n. A serranoid fish, Trisotropis falcatus, of a brown color with irregular darker spots, and with the pectorals edged with blackish and orange. It occurs along the coast of Florida and in the West Indies, and belongs very near the groupers of the genus Epinephelus. See
Trisotropis .
Wiktionary
- n. A rascal, swindler, or rogue; a ne'er-do-well.
- n. A mischievous person, especially a playful, impish youngster.
- v. dated To skimp; to do something in a skimpy or slipshod fashion.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A rascal; a swindler; a rogue.
- v. colloq. To perform in a hasty, neglectful, or imperfect manner; to do superficially.
WordNet 3.0
- v. perform hastily and carelessly
- n. one who is playfully mischievous
Etymologies
- Probably from scamp, to go about idly, probably from obsolete Dutch schampen, to decamp, from Middle Dutch ontscampen; see scamper.Possibly of Scandinavian origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Updates, 1/24: James Wolcott: Every year or so critics, audiences, and Academy voters decide to adopt a puppy, and this year the adorable scamp is Little Miss Sunshine, ludicrously nominated for Best Picture.”
“Be careful whom you call a scamp!" said Fred, while Rexford again edged off.”
“My poor sister had long been disillusioned before death released her from the titled scamp she had married, and she very wisely placed the emeralds in my custody to be held in trust for her daughter.”
“The orchestra, loud in wishing to know "who's dat knocking at de door?" and Master Tom, deep in the bill, with Mr. Rat, who is there described as a "scamp" -- an unknown term to Tom, for he asked its meaning; observing that Uncle Brick said Captain de Camp was a scamp.”
“Newton, that pesky little scamp, is still showing that entropy creeps into every system but we’re trying out best to keep it at bay.”
365 tomorrows » 2010 » May : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day
“I mean, what Barbara Bush said about junior being a “little scamp” really hasn’t changed much except that the little scamp is really a “little skunk” instead.”
“A scamp is a person with a devil may care quality, a charming rogue who exudes positive, charged energy.”
Seth Greenland: Scamps vs. Dorks: Why Do We Want to Have a Beer with the President?
“Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow, and that it is to her best interest to place all men upon the same footing before the law; mete out the same punishment to the white scamp that is inexorably meted out to the black scamp, for a scamp is a scamp any way you twist it; a social pest that should be put where he will be unable to harm any one.”
“I knew well that I was what the world calls a scamp, and I knew also that I had got little good out of the fact.”
“Upon the back of the scamp was a new blue flannel shirt, which he had stolen from the wagon, leaving his old one in exchange, and by the means of which we had traced him to his resting-place.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scamp’.
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funny & derogatory
WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
funny derogatory names, quotes, phrases.
( open list, randomness, ad hom, ad hominem )
also see:
buttfucking quitter, dirty sanchez, donkey punch, falcon punch, assbadger, unicorn turd, assclown, fudgenut, quackery, friggin homo, buttmuncher, jackwagon and 292 more... -
Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 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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Camp
I'll bring the bug spray and the waterproof matches.
camp, camping, camper, campylobacter, Jane Campion, campy, campesino, Camp David, campfire, camptown, scamp, Hello Muddah, Hel... and 88 more...
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Fun Words
Words that are fun to say....
gobbledygook, jings, crivens, hullabaloo, wheech, brouhaha, pizzazz, harum-scarum, namby-pamby, pussyfoot, frippery, pitter-patter and 333 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. II
cicurate, circumforaneous, codger, comiconomenclaturist, constable, contradistinction, contraindicated, counterpane, coxcomb, decalcomania, decanal, decoction and 307 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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~~Olde-Fashioned Insults~~
ragamuffin, muttonchops, tatterdemalion, nincompoop, whippersnapper, bootlicker, backscratcher, loggerhead, weisenheimer, hornswoggler, thimblerigger, quacksalver and 111 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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addendumb's Words
fey, cockshut, redact, beatific, melange, arcanum, rarefied, dissemble, capitulation, detritus, ennui, anodyne and 381 more...
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know-it-all
eunuch, couvade, ecclesiastes, enigma, inevitable, crucible, genteel, bedlam, baculum, scapulimancy, atrophy, smut and 170 more...
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vmarinelli's Words
canard, gumption, inexorable, insouciance, inviolable, mordant, euphonious, sawbuck, carpe diem, pay dirt, adipocere, profligate and 496 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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G & G
GRE , GMAT , TOEFL , IELTS , SAT 。。。
alphabet soup, vernacular, aberrant, abeyance, abet, recant, contrite, reiterate, patois, skew, senate, deliberative and 179 more...
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breeze debris
autodidact, hollographic, neurotheology, pensive, grapple, nondual, integral, phantasmagoria, burnished, capacious, ginger, astral and 120 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for scamp.

yarb "Every night ever since I can remember I've seen mother kneeling by her bed to say her prayers, no matter how cold it was, though she never would buy herself good woollens, and never scamping them to less than five minutes. And what has she got for it? What has she got for it?"
- Rebecca West, The Judge Jul 29, 2009