Word.ws English Dictionary

rapscallion

/ɹæpˈskæljən/

rapscallion noun: a rascal, scamp, rogue, or scoundrel.

Noun

rapscallion (plural rapscallions)

  1. (dated) A rascal, scamp, rogue, or scoundrel.
    • “If I get away I sha’n’t be here,” I says, “to prove these rapscallions ain’t your uncles, and I couldn’t do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that’s all, though that’s worth something.1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXVIII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC
    • She was the sister who had remained within the pale; I, the rapscallion of a brother whose vagaries were trying to his relations.1901, Joseph Conrad, Ford M. Hueffer [i.e., Ford Madox Ford], chapter 3, in The Inheritors: An Extravagant Story, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC

Adjective

rapscallion (comparative more rapscallion, superlative most rapscallion)

  1. Disreputable, roguish.
    • [H]e is dressed in such a rapscallion manner that the people would think you were talking to a house-breaker.1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Miss Stanbury’s Generosity”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 93
    • "I baint a-going to give my master's property to a lot of rapscallion thieves and robbers like you."1895, Charlotte M. Yonge, chapter 23, in The Carbonels

Forms of rapscallion

Noun
pluralrapscallions
Adjective
comparativemore rapscallion
superlativemost rapscallion

Origin of rapscallion

From an alteration of rascallion, a fanciful elaboration of rascal (“someone who is naughty”).

Words formed from rapscallion

Questions about rapscallion

What does rapscallion mean?
Rapscallion means a rascal, scamp, rogue, or scoundrel.
What part of speech is rapscallion?
Rapscallion can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce rapscallion?
Rapscallion is pronounced /ɹæpˈskæljən/.
What is the plural of rapscallion?
The plural of rapscallion is rapscallions.

Words near rapscallion in the dictionary

  1. raps at
  2. raps back
  3. raps down
  4. raps someone's knuckles
  5. rapscal
  6. rapscallion
  7. rapscallionism
  8. rapscallionly
  9. rapscallionry
  10. rapscallions
  11. rapscals

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rapscallion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-rapscallion.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rapscallion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rapscallion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.