Definition of RASCAL

rascal

Plural: rascals

Noun

  • A mischievous, unscrupulous, or dishonest person.
  • a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel
  • one who is playfully mischievous
  • A dishonest person; a rogue, a scoundrel, a trickster.
  • Sometimes diminutive: a cheeky person or creature; a troublemaker.
  • A member of a criminal gang.

Adj

  • Low; lowly, part of or belonging to the common rabble.

Examples

  • If you have deer in the area, you may have to put a fence around your garden to keep the rascals out.
  • That little rascal bit me!
  • That rascal tried to sneak an invalid word past the dictionary, but I caught him.

Origin / Etymology

Recorded since c.1330, as Middle English rascaile (“people of the lowest class, rabble of an army”), derived from 12th century Old French rascaille (“outcast, rabble”) (modern French racaille), perhaps from rasque (“mud, filth, scab, dregs”), from Vulgar Latin *rasicō (“to scrape”). The singular form is first attested in 1461; the present extended sense of "low, dishonest person" is from early 1586.

Scrabble Score: 8

rascal: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
rascal: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
rascal: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 10

rascal: valid Words With Friends Word