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RASCAL
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
One who is playfully mischievous
Synonyms:
imp; monkey; rapscallion; rascal; scalawag; scallywag; scamp
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("rascal" is a kind of...):
child; fry; kid; minor; nestling; nipper; shaver; small fry; tiddler; tike; tyke; youngster (a young person of either sex)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "rascal"):
brat; holy terror; little terror; terror (a very troublesome child)
Derivation:
rascally (playful in an appealingly bold way)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
Synonyms:
knave; rapscallion; rascal; rogue; scalawag; scallywag; varlet
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("rascal" is a kind of...):
scoundrel; villain (a wicked or evil person; someone who does evil deliberately)
Derivation:
rascally (lacking principles or scruples)
Context examples:
Sir George Lynn was talking of a Reed of Gateshead yesterday, who, he said, was one of the veriest rascals on town; and Ingram was mentioning a Georgiana Reed of the same place, who was much admired for her beauty a season or two ago in London.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
He said, if we were governed by our own consent, in the persons of our representatives, he could not imagine of whom we were afraid, or against whom we were to fight; and would hear my opinion, whether a private man’s house might not be better defended by himself, his children, and family, than by half-a-dozen rascals, picked up at a venture in the streets for small wages, who might get a hundred times more by cutting their throats?
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
You will kindly show the envelope of this letter to my man, Austin, when you call, as he has to take every precaution to shield me from the intrusive rascals who call themselves 'journalists.'
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
There would have been one rascal the less upon earth.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They know where he is, the rascals!
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"Cuddle your cats and get over your headache, Bethy. Goodbye, Marmee. We are a set of rascals this morning, but we'll come home regular angels. Now then, Meg!"
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Oh, God!—what a hard-hearted rascal I was!
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
So it would be in an ordinary prize-battle, nephew; and it is fortunate that it should be so, or the rascals who infest the ring would soon make all sport impossible.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I fathomed the depth of the rascal's whole scheme, and understood why he laid it bare.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But the people said “No,” unless he would bestow all his money upon the rascals and buy their liberty.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
