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ect; -- formerly with to, but now with on; as, intent on business or pleasure. "Intent on mischief." Milton. Be intent and solicitous to take up the meaning of the speaker. I. Watts.

d assaulted the house of Jason. Acts xvii. 5. Too lewd to work, and ready for any kind of mischief. Southey .

The evil deity, the author of all calamities and mischief, answering to the African of the Persians.

Doing mischief; causing harm or evil; nefarious; hurtful. [R.] Chaucer.

The doing of evil, harm, or mischief.

Doing evil, harm, or mischief.

Any wicked or mischievous intention of the mind; a depraved inclination to mischief; an intention to vex, annoy, or injure another person, or to do a wrongful act without just cause or cause or excuse; a wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others; willfulness. Malice aforethought or prepense, malice previously…

Mischief. [Obs.] Shak.

Proceeding from hatred or ill will; dictated by malice; as, a malicious report; malicious mischief.

ce; to show hatred toward; to abuse; to wrong; to injure. [Obs.] The people practice what mischiefs and villainies they will against private men, whom they malign by stealing their goods, or murdering them. Spenser.

adverbially in the sense of amiss, wrong, ill, wrongly, unsuitably; as, misdeed, mislead, mischief, miscreant.

Causing mischief; harmful; hurtful; -- now often applied where the evil is done carelessly or in sport; as, a mischievous child. "Most mischievous foul sin." Shak. This false, wily, doubling disposition is intolerably mischievous to society. South.

Hence: Kind, sort; character; quality. A dispute of this nature caused mischief. Dryden.

an, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. John xviii. 40. The other great and undoing mischief which befalls men is, by their being misrepresented. Now, by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander. South. Now and again, now and then; occasionally. -- Now and now, again and again;…

to; besides; -- indicating multiplication or succession in a series; as, heaps on heaps; mischief on mischief; loss on loss; thought on thought. Shak.

done to persons or things; a gross violation of right or decency; excessive abuse; wanton mischief; gross injury. Chaucer. He wrought great outrages, wasting all the country. Spenser.

person; the top, or crown, of the head. [Now generally used in contempt or ridicule.] His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Ps. vii. 16. Fat paunches have lean pate. Shak.

A charm worn as a protection against disease or mischief; an amulet. Coleridge. Now help, ye charming spells and periapts. Shak.

To form a scheme of mischief against another, especially against a government or those who administer it; to conspire. Shak. The wicked plotteth against the just. Ps. xxxvii. 12.

Previous caution or care; caution previously employed to prevent mischief or secure good; as, his life was saved by precaution. They [ancient philosophers] treasured up their supposed discoveries with miserable precaution. J. H. Newman.