shenanigan

shenanigan

noun

Definition of SHENANIGAN

1

usually shenanigans pl  playful, reckless behavior that is not intended to cause serious harm <students engaging in youthful shenanigans on the last day of school>

Synonyms devilishness, devilment, devilry (or deviltry), diablerie, espièglerie, hob, impishness, knavery, mischievousness, rascality, roguery, roguishness, shenanigan(s), waggery, waggishness, wickedness

Related Words diabolicalness, misbehavior, misconduct, naughtiness, troublemaking; buffoonery, friskiness, playfulness, sportiveness; chicanery, trickery; goings-on, hanky-panky, high jinks (also hijinks), monkey business, monkeying, monkeyshine(s), skylarking, tomfoolery; horseplay, roughhousing; antic, caper, dido, practical joke, trick; aggravation, annoyance, exasperation, irritation

Near Antonyms gravitas, gravity, seriousness, solemnity, solemnness

2

usually shenanigans pl  wildly playful or mischievous behavior <an act of vandalism that went way beyond the usual shenanigans at summer camp>

Synonyms buffoonery, clownery, clowning, foolery, high jinks (also hijinks), horsing around, monkey business, monkeying, monkeyshine(s), roughhouse, roughhousing, shenanigan(s), skylarking, slapstick, tomfoolery

Related Words childishness, clownishness, foolishness, funning, jesting, joking, nonsense, silliness, waggery; boisterousness, rambunctiousness, rowdiness, rowdyism, rumbustiousness [chiefly British]; devilry (or deviltry), impishness, knavery, mischief, mischievousness, prankishness, rascality, roguery, roguishness, trickery; cavorting, frivolity, frolicking, gamboling (or gambolling), merrymaking, playfulness, revelry, roistering, romping, sporting, sportiveness

3

a clever often underhanded means to achieve an end <the street-corner huckster of pirated DVDs had all sorts of shenanigans to keep the cops off of his tail>

Synonyms artifice, device, dodge, fetch, flimflam, gambit, gimmick, jig, juggle, knack, play, ploy, scheme, shenanigan, sleight, stratagem, wile

Related Words bluff, end run, feint; cheating, chicanery, cozenage, craft, crookery, cunning, deception, dupery, duplicity, fakery, jugglery, legerdemain, skulduggery (or skullduggery), subterfuge, swindling, trickery; fraud, gaff, hoax, sham, swindle; blind, front, smoke screen