rapscallion

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a dishonest, disreputable, or mischievous person; a rascal or scoundrel

   The confidence trickster was exposed as a charming rapscallion.

2. 2
   adj

   rare: roguish, disreputable, or characteristic of a rascal

   His rapscallion manner made the innkeeper distrust him at once.

An alteration of rascallion, itself a fanciful expansion of rascal with the ending seen in words such as scullion. Rapscallion has been used since the late seventeenth century for a rogue or mischievous scamp.

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