How to use mischief in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Mischief means conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance. Example: “Drink led to mischief.”

Examples of mischief by meaning

nounConduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

Drink led to mischief.

nounA playfully annoying action.

John's mischief, tying his shoelaces together, irked George at first.

nounA nest or pack of mice or rats.

Kirac, the leader of the rats under his charge, speaks to the major through his telepathic abilities that manifested after the alien virus infected him and his mischief of rats.2014, G. W. Rennie, The Rat Chronicles, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 21
Meet a mischief of mice that is not nibbling away at the foundation of an old building.2025 December 25, Neva Rae Fox, “This Mischief of Mice Preserves a Cathedral”, in The Living Church, archived from the original on 28 Jul...
A group of rats is not a herd or a gaggle, but a pack or a mischief of rats.2015, Rachel Smith, John Davidson, Rats For Kids, Mendon Cottage Books, →ISBN, page 6

nounHarm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.

She had mischief in her heart.
Sooner or later he'll succeed in doing some serious mischief.
I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot.1914 September – 1915 May, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 1, in The Valley of Fear: A Sherlock Holmes Novel, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry]...

nounAn injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.

It may end in her doing a great mischief to herself—and perhaps to others too.

nounThe Devil; used as an expletive.

What the mischief are you? and how the mischief did you get here, and where in thunder did you come from?1967, The Statesman, volume 12, page 260

verbTo do a mischief to; to harm.

"He is only one, and I want to mischief all the seven.1911, J[ames] M[atthew] Barrie, “The Island Come True”, in Peter and Wendy, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons...

More sentences with mischief

The mother turned a blind eye to her son’s mischief as she expected him not to repeat it.From the entry turn a blind eye
Bathtime was full of mischief and splashings.From the entry splashing
Recently he's been getting up to all sorts of mischief.From the entry get up to
The boys are primed for mischief.From the entry prime
Lemme get another glass of hydro on the rocks.” Her green eyes shone with mischief, as usual.2023 June 17, Micky Carre, chapter 1, in Like Tears in Rain (Aurora Chronicles; 2), ASIN B0C4HYYT6P. From the entry hydro
A real character who combined a touch of genius with a sense of mischief.2021, Brian Barwick, Sixty Years a Red... and Counting!. From the entry goal machine
It means “mischief.” Lurid tales of murder and mayhem among the upper classes.2010, David Davalos, Wittenberg: A Tragical-Comical-Historical in Two Acts, Dramatists Play Service, →ISBN, act one, page 24. From the entry dukicide
Stevens, Tobey, Comstock, and the rest), and suspecting the true mischief, I at once wrote to Mr.2006, Gary Schmidgall, Horace Traubel, Conserving Walt Whitman's fame. From the entry pranksome
I was a typical PK (preacher's kid), full of mischief, full of life and insatiable curiosity.1998, Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr., My Soul's Been Anchored: A Preacher's Heritage in the Faith. From the entry pk
Rebeca is busy with the children, who are busy getting into mischief.1992, Teresa Kao, “Nikki”, in The Quality of the Light, West Linn, Or.: Gangor Press, →ISBN, page 166. From the entry run someone ragged
Thou art all mischief, Michal, Thou shouldst be married to a Philistine, for his undoing. michal: Ayeee!1925 spring, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, scene X, in David: A Play, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, published 1926, →OCLC, page 69. From the entry aye
So it's clane she is, if she ain't got into no mischief the half hour."1919, Grace S. Richmond, The Brown Study. From the entry clane
What the mischief does he mean by this Jack Shalloo trick?1910, The Idler: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 38, page 172. From the entry Jack Shalloo
They hide in terror when faced with bullies and get up to mischief when the lights are out.2022, Shehan Karunatilaka, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, Sort Of Books, page 302. From the entry pangolin
For her, it embodies a certain air of harmless mischief.2022 March 14, Kari Paul, “Slobbing out and giving up: why are so many people going ‘goblin mode’ ?”, in The Guardian, archived from the…. From the entry goblin mode
With one shot the mischief was done.2018 January 19, Fred M. White, The Mystery of Room 75, Jovian Press, →ISBN. From the entry simple as kiss your hand
The woman, Francisca Medina, was indicted on three charges: felony arson, felony criminal mischief and state jail felony criminal mischief.2008 May 1, Associated Press, “Texas: Wife of Justice Is Indicted Again”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times…. From the entry francisca
I'll catch it for your mischief in running away.2003, Sid Fleischman, The Whipping Boy, page 39. From the entry catch it
Ann had said she had had enough of mischief and carelessness but couldn't bear to injure her family.1969, Geoffrey Wolff, Bad Debts, page 62. From the entry screwery
Before releasing it, OpenAI hired some “expert red teamers,” whose job was to see how much mischief the model might do, before it became public.2024 March 18, Andrew Marantz, “О.К., Doomer”, in The New Yorker, page 45. From the entry red teamer
The hook of Good Boys, Hollywood's latest odyssey of comic adolescent mischief, is that the kids behaving badly are, for once, truly kids.2019 August 14, A. A. Dowd, “Good Boys Puts a Tween Spin on the R-rated Teen Comedy, to Mostly Funny Effect”, in The A.V. Club, archived…. From the entry hook
Her career as a performer, a model and a high priestess of the outré has been rooted for decades in catwalk-Kabuki mischief and provocation.2015 October 22, Jeff Gordinier, “‘I’ll Never Write My Memoirs,’ Grace Jones’s Memoirs”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry outré
Sloan, in contrast, all but erased the social importance of the Koshare as mischief makers and satirists, instead presenting only their more serious religious function.2008, Sascha T. Scott, Paintings of Pueblo Indians and the Politics of Preservation in the American Southwest, →ISBN, page 258. From the entry Koshare
It is intent to deceive or to dabble in malicious mischief that sets a sock puppeteer apart from a legitimate user with multiple accounts.2005 December 21, Shelley Powers, "Yo! Sock Puppets!" on Burningbird.net. From the entry sock puppeteer
It was a part of his general mischief—he lurched about all day, asked leading questions, rubbed up old scandals and scratched beadily for new ones.2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 5, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN. From the entry beadily
You had to wonder whether he was thinking about some mischief he had just perpetrated or thinking about some new mischief he could get into.2004, Jud McLester, Thru a Pilot's Eye: Cold War Through Vietnam Era, page 222. From the entry devil in one's eyes
Automatically, he scanned the premises for catly mischief, just as Nick Bamba scanned a vacated guest room for missing lightbulbs and dripping hot water faucets.2003, Lilian Jackson Braun, The Cat Who Went Up the Creek. From the entry catly
Many of Porter's lyrics display a charming, playful irony, a sense of amused mischief and the insight of an outsider, a romantic observer.1991 December 1, Rudy Grillo, “Who's The Top?”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 20, page 8. From the entry spritely
For the besiegers had devised this new mischief against the city and invented a new knavish siege-engine to apply to the town.1928, Anna Comnena [i.e., Anna Komnene], “Book XIII”, in Elizabeth A[nna] S[ophia] Dawes, transl., The Alexiad (Byzantine Series)…. From the entry siege engine

Meaning of mischief

noun Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.
noun A playfully annoying action.
noun A nest or pack of mice or rats.

Full definition of mischief

Questions about mischief in a sentence

How do you use mischief in a sentence?: Mischief is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Drink led to mischief.”
What is a short sentence with mischief?: “Drink led to mischief.”
What does mischief mean?: Mischief means conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

Adapted from Wiktionary: mischief (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use mischief in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/mischief. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.