MISCHIEF • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Mischief

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/mˈɪstʃəf/ Listen

noun

Mischief n.

1.

Harm; damage; esp., disarrangement of order; trouble or vexation caused by human agency or by some living being, intentionally or not; often, calamity, mishap; trivial evil caused by thoughtlessness, or in sport. "Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs." "The practice whereof shall, I hope, secure me from many mischiefs."

2.

Cause of trouble or vexation; trouble. "The mischief was, these allies would never allow that the common enemy was subdued."

To be in mischief, to be doing harm or causing annoyance.

To make mischief, to do mischief, especially by exciting quarrels.

To play the mischief, to cause great harm; to throw into confusion. (Colloq.)

Synonyms: Damage; harm; hurt; injury; detriment; evil; ill. Mischief, Damage, Harm. Damage is an injury which diminishes the value of a thing; harm is an injury which causes trouble or inconvenience; mischief is an injury which disturbs the order and consistency of things. We often suffer damage or harm from accident, but mischief always springs from perversity or folly.

verb

Mischief v. t. To do harm to. (Obs.)

See images of 'Mischief'

Etymology of 'Mischief'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mischief" Quotes from Famous Books

... could not control. He was able to play this double part for eight years, until his treachery was discovered by one Mist, whose "Journal" Defoe had, in his own words, "disabled and enervated, so as to do no mischief, or give any offense to the government." Mist hastened to disclose Defoe's real character to his fellow newspaper proprietors; and in 1726 we find the good Daniel sorrowfully complaining, "I had not published my project ...

— History of the Plague in London • Daniel Defoe

... that you did not do that either. You had better confess that you took it and lashed it to shreds. I suppose poor Philip will have to make good your mischief out of his own pocket." The footman (who looked a grave and honest man) seemed much put out by the affair, and determined to sift it to the bottom on ...

— Childhood • Leo Tolstoy

... peered drowsily through the window and saw the old white horse with its lean, erect driver move slowly down toward the gate, long-shadowed and unreal in the moonlight, fantastic omens of some unknown mischief that ...

— The Windy Hill • Cornelia Meigs

... is full of the joy of living, fun-loving, given to ingenious mischief for its own sake, with a disregard for pretty convention which is an unfailing source of joy to ...

— Left End Edwards • Ralph Henry Barbour

... only be to provoke you into planning an elopement—and, your arrangements once completed, to inform Mr. Restall, and to part you and Miss Adela quite as effectually as if you were at opposite ends of the world. Oh, you will undoubtedly be parted! Spiteful, isn't it? And, what is worse, the mischief is as ...

— Little Novels • Wilkie Collins

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