1
as in villains
a mean, evil, or unprincipled person
the city's run-down waterfront was occupied mostly by disreputable places frequented by drunkards and rapscallions
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in monkeys
an appealingly mischievous person
that little rapscallion kept hiding my shoes and making me go look for them
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Recent Examples of rapscallions
Imagine how Lowell’s most fun, most ferocious rock ‘n’ roll rapscallions will do Sabbath during their tribute set May 2 at the Smokehouse Tavern.
—
Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald, 26 Apr. 2026
Twin brothers, these rapscallions can be told apart by Boris’s kinked tail and the colors of their collars.
—Literary Hub, 10 Apr. 2026
Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald, 26 Apr. 2026
Twin brothers, these rapscallions can be told apart by Boris’s kinked tail and the colors of their collars.
—Literary Hub, 10 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for rapscallions
Noun
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In keeping with the promotion, the Sox players’ photos on the video board cast them as villains wearing black and eye patches.—
Paul Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
17 June 2026
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Beyond harsher criticism, sports media frames Black athletes differently — often naming them as villains, failures, antagonists or questioning their leadership when necessary.—
Brielle Miller,
Baltimore Sun,
16 June 2026
Noun
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The sanctuary, located near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, cares for a colony of African vervet monkeys descended from animals linked to a roadside zoo and research facility that operated decades ago.—
Joan Murray,
CBS News,
21 June 2026
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The location provides easy access to some of the most biodiverse locations in Costa Rica around the Osa Peninsula for those who want to get up close and personal with birds, monkeys, or sloths.—
Brandon Withrow,
Travel + Leisure,
14 June 2026
Noun
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These brutes commonly exceed 50 pounds.—
Keith Sutton,
Outdoor Life,
18 June 2026
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In Raspail’s tale, hordes of impoverished and dark-skinned brutes from India descend onto French shores by way of rafts, the first wave of an invasion of the civilized West by the brown-skinned developing world.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
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But there are lots of potential devils in the details (otherwise there’d be little need for experimental reactors).—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
9 June 2026
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Tasmanian devils — agile, mostly nocturnal animals that can roam for 10 miles in a single night — have been extinct on the Australian mainland for more than 3,000 years.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
4 June 2026
Noun
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If criminals have enough information to keep attacking your accounts, a credit freeze can help stop them from opening new credit in your name.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
19 June 2026
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And historically, denaturalization has been reserved for the most egregious offenders, such as human rights abusers and violent criminals.—
Camilo Montoya-Galvez,
CBS News,
18 June 2026
Noun
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Of all the former rascals, Symoné has enjoyed the longest and most successful career in entertainment.—
Andrew Walsh,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Jan. 2026
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In the years since 2004’s Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, Penn’s carved out a niche embodying big-talking, attention-grabbing rascals who say inappropriate things, then shrug their way through the consequences.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
12 Jan. 2026
Noun
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To better understand what drives a young person to commit these crimes, CNN spent months searching for prior offenders willing to speak about their experience.—
Hanako Montgomery,
CNN Money,
22 June 2026
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Window treatments are one of the most common offenders.—
Angelika Pokovba,
Martha Stewart,
20 June 2026
Noun
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Or a group of shipwrecked boys turning into savages and killing one another?—
Glenn Whipp,
Los Angeles Times,
8 June 2026
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The Indians in Westerns had war paint and whooped like savages.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Rapscallions.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rapscallions. Accessed 24 Jun. 2026.
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