rascal
Pluralrascals
Pluralrascals
- 1A cheeky person or animal that makes mischief; a troublemaker, sometimes said fondly of a child or small creature.
Grandpa laughed and called the toddler a little rascal when she hid his glasses again.
The squirrels are clever rascals and keep raiding the bird feeder.
Similarscamp, imp, monkey, devil, troublemaker
- 2A dishonest person who cheats or tricks others; a scoundrel.
The investors finally realized their trusted adviser was a rascal who had been skimming their accounts for years.
Angry voters promised to throw the rascals out and elect honest leaders.
Similarscoundrel, rogue, crook, cheat, swindler
Note
The word began as a crowd rather than a person: Middle English rascaile, recorded around 1330, meant people of the lowest class or the rabble of an army, from Old French rascaille, "outcast, rabble". The insult for a single cheat grew out of that scorn for the mob, and the archaic adjective still carries the older class meaning.
- 3A gangster; someone who takes part in crimes such as robbery as a member of a gang.
Police said a gang of rascals was behind the string of armed robberies in the capital.
A former rascal who quit his gang now helps young men in Port Moresby find steady work.
Similarthug, gangster, criminal, hoodlum
Note
Papua New Guinea English uses the word with none of the playfulness it has elsewhere: a rascal there belongs to a criminal gang, and the word is meant as seriously as gangster. Readers from other countries may hear the fond, cheeky meaning and miss how grave it is, so a report of rascals in the capital is news of violent crime.
Less common meaning
- 4Low or lowly in rank; belonging to the common rabble.
The nobles rode past the rascal throng at the gates without a glance.
The captain had nothing but contempt for the rascal followers who trailed behind the army.
Note
As an adjective it ranks people by birth, not by honesty: rascal followers or a rascal throng are common and low, part of the rabble, whatever their morals. Expect it only in older texts. A modern reader is likely to hear the scoundrel meaning in it, so a writer who wants the social sense today would say lowly or common instead.
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Origin
Recorded since c. 1330 as Middle English rascaile, "people of the lowest class, rabble of an army", 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 is first attested in 1461, and the sense "low, dishonest person" dates from 1586.