1
as in monkey
an appealingly mischievous person
you little rascal, I saw you snitching some hors d'oeuvres even though our guests haven't even arrived yet
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2
as in villain
a mean, evil, or unprincipled person
some cold-blooded rascal had set the barn afire
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Recent Examples of rascal
In a time when unemployment is on the rise and the rich are running amok and wreaking havoc on the poor — and the social services in place to support them — who doesn’t love the idea of rogue rascals sticking it to a bougie institution by running off with its crown jewels?
—
Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Refinery29, 12 Nov. 2025
The hilarious hijinks that ensue are centered on a rugby-playing rascal whose initial interests in pulling chicks and working get-rich-quick schemes give way to a lifelong love of writing poetry in the post-Soviet-occupation era of the 1990s.
—Courtney Howard, Variety, 30 Oct. 2025
And Eli was, at times, a bit of a rascal.
—David Kamp, New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2025
In the process of the deal going bad, Vince presumably kills a man with his car, but since it’s never mentioned again during the course of the series, he’s allowed to be treated as a lovable rascal.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rascal
Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Refinery29, 12 Nov. 2025
The hilarious hijinks that ensue are centered on a rugby-playing rascal whose initial interests in pulling chicks and working get-rich-quick schemes give way to a lifelong love of writing poetry in the post-Soviet-occupation era of the 1990s.
—Courtney Howard, Variety, 30 Oct. 2025
And Eli was, at times, a bit of a rascal.
—David Kamp, New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2025
In the process of the deal going bad, Vince presumably kills a man with his car, but since it’s never mentioned again during the course of the series, he’s allowed to be treated as a lovable rascal.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 16 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for rascal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rascal
Noun
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Humans looked evolutionarily weird The research team analyzed handedness data from 2,025 individuals across 41 species of monkeys and apes.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
16 May 2026
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Charli is a mini purple monkey that fits right on your finger.—
BestReviews,
Mercury News,
15 May 2026
Noun
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Was that a conscious decision after the controversy surrounding past tweets that made some people see you as a villain during the Emilia Pérez Oscar campaign?—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
13 May 2026
-
Angel Reese has never had a problem embracing the villain role.—
Amber Harding OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
13 May 2026
Noun
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This is the aforementioned devil’s chair.—
Jaclyn Cosgrove,
Los Angeles Times,
7 May 2026
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And, yes, there is a literal devil in this one, which won’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with LaValle’s novel.—
Kate Erbland,
IndieWire,
4 May 2026
Noun
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Oscillating between a bumbling brute and an ironic ignoramus, Marvel Studios sees the God of Thunder more like the God of Blunder, kicking out the knees of the steady 2011 film in favour of single-digit IQ humour.—
Sergio Pereira,
Space.com,
6 May 2026
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This time the closing hole was a brute, the toughest at Harbour Town on Sunday.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
19 Apr. 2026
Noun
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The minotaur was a monster, half man and half bull, that was imprisoned in a dark underground labyrinth.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
16 May 2026
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This little green creature then tries to help the Minions find more monsters to flesh out their film, a plan that unsurprisingly goes awry.—
Jami Ganz,
New York Daily News,
16 May 2026
Noun
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Smoothbrain libs and savages can KMA.—
Joe Kinsey OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
18 May 2026
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Yet the car was also a burden, with high monthly interest payments, which put savage masculinity at odds with paternal liability.—
Weike Wang,
New Yorker,
17 May 2026
Noun
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When unhoused people are treated as criminals, they are pushed into an identity of exclusion rather than belonging.—
Shianne LeClaire,
Hartford Courant,
17 May 2026
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Set in Gaza in 2007, and following the misadventures of a student (Nader Abd Alhay) and restaurant owner and petty criminal (Majd Eid), the picture premiered in Un Certain Regard last year and won the Best Director prize.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
16 May 2026
Noun
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New Orleans has long been notorious for embracing such scoundrels, a reputation that isn’t exactly helped by the fact that, for many years, disgraced attorneys who lost their licenses in Louisiana and applied for readmission to the bar often got it.—
Patrick Radden Keefe,
New Yorker,
13 Apr. 2026
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Sure, the Oscar-winning makeup helps transform the actor into Cheney, but the voice and petulance are all Bale, whose conjuring of this scoundrel ought to trigger PTSD for anyone who survived the Dubya years.—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
7 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rascal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rascal. Accessed 21 May. 2026.
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