Both Uses of
mischievous
in
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Sometimes a mischievous child risked his skin and bones for the ineffable pleasure of driving a pin into Quasimodo's hump.†
Chpt 1.4.6 *
- Accordingly, he assumed an extremely soft tone and began,— "My good brother, do you hate me to such a degree as to look savagely upon me because of a few mischievous cuffs and blows distributed in a fair war to a pack of lads and brats, ~quibusdam marmosetis~?†
Chpt 2.7.4
Definitions:
-
(1)
(mischievous) playfully causing minor trouble; or describing the smile of someone doing soMuch less commonly, mischievous can reference real harm without any sense of fun. But in modern writing, that usage has largely shifted to other words like malicious, destructive, or damaging.
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In law, mischievous references a property crime such as vandalism or graffiti. Very rarely, the word can reference someone or something causing serious damage.
In archaic literature mischievous often refers to bad behavior without any connotation of playfulness or of the harm being minor.