1
as in monkey
an appealingly mischievous person
those little scamps are always getting into trouble, but no one has the heart to punish them
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in villain
a mean, evil, or unprincipled person
an insincere and ruthlessly ambitious scamp who was willing to do anything to win the reality show's grand prize
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in to botch
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of scamp
Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 6 Aug. 2025
Krypto is, above all, a little scamp, a characterization that Gunn leans on as Krypto playfully roughhouses with Supes in his new film.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 11 July 2025
Elle Carroll, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2021
Sunshine scamps: The Florida Project is a delighful, poignant, dark-and-light movie about kids living on the seedy side of Disney.
—Rebecca Onion, Slate Magazine, 6 Oct. 2017
See All Example Sentences for scamp
Noun
Season 2 brings viewers back to Nevermore Academy, the gothic high school for supernatural scamps that Wednesday enrolled in last time around, and subsequently helped save from Season 1 villains Tyler (Hunter Doohan) and Marilyn Thornhill (Christina Ricci, a one-time Wednesday herself).
—Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 6 Aug. 2025
Krypto is, above all, a little scamp, a characterization that Gunn leans on as Krypto playfully roughhouses with Supes in his new film.
—Daniel Dockery, Vulture, 11 July 2025
Verb
While its individual characters feel largely interchangeable, the movie hums with life and pleasure when Borowczyk lets his nuns twirl around the chapel in a painterly tableau and scamp through the convent.
—Elle Carroll, Vulture, 6 Dec. 2021
Sunshine scamps: The Florida Project is a delighful, poignant, dark-and-light movie about kids living on the seedy side of Disney.
—Rebecca Onion, Slate Magazine, 6 Oct. 2017
See All Example Sentences for scamp
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scamp
Noun
-
Rejected at birth by his mother, he was initially cared for by zookeepers before being reintroduced to the monkey enclosure.—
Culture Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
21 Feb. 2026
-
Punch the monkey can't catch a break.—
Greta Cross,
USA Today,
20 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Even the Dodgers, the cartoon villains of spending, kind of sort of have a limit.—
Dieter Kurtenbach,
Mercury News,
18 Feb. 2026
-
And Salieri seems more of hybrid creature, as though a villain out of Christopher Marlowe had suddenly been endowed with Shakespearean self-awareness.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
After Malinin botched his final free in the singles competition, Cowan kept his distance as the skater crumbled into a grimace of abject disappointment.—
Colleen Barry,
Chicago Tribune,
16 Feb. 2026
-
The search for a permanent inspector general began after the city botched the process last year.—
Devyani Chhetri,
Dallas Morning News,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Think of devil’s food in Bundt form!—
Kaitlyn Yarborough,
Southern Living,
15 Feb. 2026
-
To play devil’s advocate, Rodriguez has exhausted a lot of patience (there’s a funny quote in Felipe Cardenas’ analysis about his physical stats).—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
For much of his career, Skarsgård has gravitated toward characters who weaponize physical presence — Vikings, tech titans and mythic brutes whose power is immediately legible.—
Clayton Davis,
Variety,
9 Jan. 2026
-
As usual, Lang plays the brute’s Heart of Darkness–esque descent into madness with gleeful relish.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
19 Dec. 2025
Verb
-
Andrew Cunanan, and Beanie Feldstein’s wide-eyed Monica Lewinsky, a performance that might have achieved icon status had Disney not bungled the FX on Hulu rollout.—
Nicholas Quah,
Vulture,
12 Feb. 2026
-
Hollywood stars would do well to worry less about bungling the teleprompter and more about being true to their heart.—
Steven Zeitchik,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Mozart, however, isn’t merely a puerile rascal, as his relationship with Lauren Worsham’s Constanze reveals.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Feb. 2026
-
Of all the former rascals, Symoné has enjoyed the longest and most successful career in entertainment.—
Andrew Walsh,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
New Yorkers only just freed from the snow and ice left by January’s monster storm will once again face winter’s wrath.—
Jessica Schladebeck,
New York Daily News,
21 Feb. 2026
-
If a monster is there, and the monster is those who escape justice or being held to account.—
Jazz Tangcay,
Variety,
21 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Scamp.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scamp. Accessed 23 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
