puckish en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˈpʌkɪʃ/
- (US) audio
Etymology
From Puck + -ish, after the mischievous fairy in English folklore who is also a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Meanings
-
Having a tendency to play tricks on people or tease people by making silly jokes about them; mischievous.
She has a puckish attitude.
Wolfowitz spoke softly to Yasa, who evidently had no idea who he was but responded with a puckish smile.
2007 April 2, John Cassidy, “The Next Crusade”, in The New Yorker:They are so puckish for their love of practical jokes.
He has a puckish grin.
“Chandler Bing,” wrote Matthew Perry in his puckish, self-mocking memoir, “changed the way that America spoke”.
2023 October 29, Zoe Williams, “‘An ironic, self-deprecating metrosexual’: how Matthew Perry captured the spirit of the age”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:He has a puckish sense of humor.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more puckish | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most puckish | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |