mischief

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: mis=chief

CIDE DICTIONARY

mischief, n. [OE. meschef bad result, OF. meschief; pref. mes- (L. minus less) + chief end, head, F. chef chief. See Minus, and Chief.].

•  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.  Chaucer.  [1913 Webster]

  "Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs."  [1913 Webster]

  "The practice whereof shall, I hope, secure me from many mischiefs."  [1913 Webster]
•  Cause of trouble or vexation; trouble.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

  "The mischief was, these allies would never allow that the common enemy was subdued."  [1913 Webster]

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.]

Syn. -- Damage; harm; hurt; injury; detriment; evil; ill.

mischief, v. t. 

 To do harm to.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

mischief, n.
1 conduct which is troublesome, but not malicious, esp. in children.
2 pranks, scrapes (get into mischief; keep out of mischief).
3 playful malice, archness, satire (eyes full of mischief).
4 harm or injury caused by a person or thing.
5 a person or thing responsible for harm or annoyance (that loose connection is the mischief).
6 (prec. by the) the annoying part or aspect (the mischief of it is that etc.).

Idiom

do a person a mischief wound or kill a person. get up to (or make) mischief create discord. mischief-maker one who encourages discord, esp. by gossip etc.

Etymology

ME f. OF meschief f. meschever (as MIS-(2), chever come to an end f. chef head: see CHIEF)

THESAURUS

mischief

Discordia, Eris, abomination, atrocity, bad, bad boy, badness, bane, bankruptcy, befoulment, blight, booger, breakage, breakdown, buffoon, bugger, clash, clashing, collapse, conflict, contention, corruption, crack-up, crippling, crying evil, cutup, damage, defilement, despoliation, destruction, detriment, devil, devilishness, devilment, devilry, deviltry, diablerie, difference, difficulty, dilapidation, disablement, disaccord, disadvantage, disaffinity, discord, discordance, discordancy, disharmony, disrepair, disruption, dissension, dissent, division, drawback, elf, elfishness, encroachment, enfant terrible, enmity, evil, foolishness, friction, funmaker, grievance, handicap, hardship, harm, havoc, high spirits, hobbling, hood, hoodlum, hooligan, hurt, hurting, ill, imp, impairment, impishness, incapacitation, incompatibility, incompatibleness, infection, infringement, inharmoniousness, inharmony, injury, inroad, jangle, jar, joker, jokester, knave, liability, limb, little devil, little monkey, little rascal, loss, loss of ground, maiming, mayhem, minx, misbehavior, mischief-maker, mischievousness, misfortune, monkey business, monkeyshines, mutilation, naughtiness, noncooperation, open conflict, outrage, pixie, playfulness, poison, pollution, practical joker, prankishness, pranksomeness, prankster, prejudice, puck, puckishness, rapscallion, rascal, rascality, rogue, roguery, roguishness, rowdy, rub, ruffian, ruin, ruination, ruinousness, sabotage, scalawag, scamp, scampishness, scapegrace, scathe, shenanigans, sickening, spoiling, sportiveness, step backward, strained relations, strife, tension, the worst, toxin, trouble, unharmoniousness, unpleasantness, variance, venom, vexation, villain, wag, waggery, waggishness, weakening, woe, wrong, youthful spirits

ROGET THESAURUS

mischief

Evil

N evil, ill, harm, hurt, mischief, nuisance, machinations of the devil, Pandora's box, ills that flesh is heir to, blow, buffet, stroke, scratch, bruise, wound, gash, mutilation, mortal blow, wound, immedicabile vulnus, damage, loss, disadvantage, prejudice, drawback, disaster, accident, casualty, mishap, bad job, devil to pay, calamity, bale, catastrophe, tragedy, ruin, adversity, mental suffering, demon, (Evil spirit) bane, (cause of evil), badness, (Production of Evil), painfulness, evil doer, outrage, wrong, injury, foul play, bad turn, ill turn, disservice, spoliation, grievance, crying evil, disastrous, bad, awry, out of joint, disadvantageous, amis, wrong, ill, to one's cost, moving accidents by flood and field.