high jinks

Noun

high jinks pl (plural only)

1. (Scotland, historical, plural, plural-only) An old Scottish parlour game in which people were chosen, usually by throwing dice, to perform some humorous act or drink a large amount of an alcoholic beverage, with a forfeit if they were unable to do so.
   • [T]he frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of High Jinks. This game was played in several different ways. Most frequently the dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain, for a time, a certain...1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and...
2. (broadly, plural, plural-only) Boisterous activity or behaviour; lively fun.
   • Only one tutor has rooms here; and I should think, if he's a reading man, it wont be for long before he clears out; for all sorts of high jinks go on on the grass-plot, and the row on the staircases is often as bad, and not half so respectable, as it used to be in the middle passage in the last...1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “St. Ambrose’s College”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 10
   • But given the funny hats and juvenile hijinx, it's hard to buy the play's more serious intentions.1988 January 15, Tom Boeker, “A Night at Dykes Who Date/Crusaders [theatre review]”, in Chicago Reader, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Reader, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Oct 2022

   Synonyms:

   jinks

3. (broadly, plural, plural-only) Tricky or waggish behaviour; mischief.
   • High Jinks! High Jinks! High Jinks! The haggis has puttin' out the fire, and sealed up the boiler—1828 December, [John Wilson], “Noctes Ambrosianae. No. XL.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXIV, number CXLVI, part I, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC...
   • That's what happened to me the last time you fired a high snowball. Peaches. That's why I didn't want you to try another while I'm around. You wait until I'm off the campus if you've got to indulge in high jinks.1912, Lester Chadwick [pseudonym; Howard Roger Garis], “Hitting a Teacher”, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine: Or Pitching for the Blue Banner (Baseball Joe Series; 2), New York, N.Y.: Cupples &...

   Synonyms:

   commess, shenanigans