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MISCHIEVOUS
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Deliberately causing harm or damage
Example:
mischievous rumors and falsehoods
Classified under:
Similar:
harmful (causing or capable of causing harm)
Derivation:
mischief (reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others)
mischief (the quality or nature of being harmful or evil)
mischievousness (reckless or malicious behavior that causes discomfort or annoyance in others)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Naughtily or annoyingly playful
Example:
a wicked prank
Synonyms:
arch; impish; implike; mischievous; pixilated; prankish; puckish; wicked
Classified under:
Similar:
playful (full of fun and high spirits)
Derivation:
mischievousness (the trait of behaving like an imp)
Context examples:
It is observed, that the red haired of both sexes are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much exceed in strength and activity.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
He had been able to retain his self-command whilst the poor lady was present, for he knew her state and how mischievous a shock would be; he actually smiled on her as he held open the door for her to pass into her room.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
I asked him what her disposition was: whether it was at all mischievous, and if her sympathies were generally on the right side of things: but, not succeeding in attracting his attention to these questions after two or three attempts, I forbore or forgot to repeat them.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
We are not boy and girl, to be captiously irritable, misled by every moment's inadvertence, and wantonly playing with our own happiness." And yet, a few minutes afterwards, she felt as if their being in company with each other, under their present circumstances, could only be exposing them to inadvertencies and misconstructions of the most mischievous kind.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
“Well, then,” said Holmes, with a mischievous twinkle, “I suppose that you have no objection to helping me?”
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson,” said Holmes with a mischievous twinkle.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"Going out for exercise," answered Jo with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
His face was pale and handsome, with a prominent chin, a jutting nose, and large blue staring eyes, in which a sort of dancing, mischievous light was for ever playing.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But being afraid the boy might owe me a spite, and well remembering how mischievous all children among us naturally are to sparrows, rabbits, young kittens, and puppy dogs, I fell on my knees, and pointing to the boy, made my master to understand, as well as I could, that I desired his son might be pardoned.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
His age may have been nearer forty than thirty, but his cheeks were so ruddy and his eyes so merry that he still conveyed the impression of a plump and mischievous boy.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
