1. Behavior that causes discomfiture or annoyance in another. 2. An inclination or tendency to play pranks or cause embarrassment. 3. One that causes minor trouble or disturbance: The child was a mischief in school.4. Damage, destruction, or injury caused by a specific person or thing: The broken window was the mischief of vandals.5. The state or quality of being mischievous.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English mischef, from Old French meschief, misfortune, from meschever, to end badly : mes-, badly; see mis–1 + chever, to happen, come to an end (from Vulgar Latin *capre, to come to a head, from *capum, head, from Latin caput; see kaput- in Appendix I).
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re, to come to a head, from *capum, head, from Latin caput; see kaput- in Appendix I).
