rapscallion

Definition

A rascal, scamp, rogue, or scoundrel.

Etymology

From an alteration of rascallion, a fanciful elaboration of rascal (“someone who is naughty”).

Example Sentences

• "“If I get away I sha’n’t be here,” I says, “to prove these rapscallions ain’t your uncles, and I couldn’t do it if I was here. I could swear they was beats and bummers, that’s all, though that’s worth something."
• "She was the sister who had remained within the pale; I, the rapscallion of a brother whose vagaries were trying to his relations."
• "She had a studio built for him on a loft of the carriage house behind the family mansion when he was only ten years old, and she hired a rapscallion German cabinetmaker, who had studied art in Berlin in his youth, to give Father drawing and painting lessons on weekends and after school."