1
as in monkeys
an appealingly mischievous person
those little scamps are always getting into trouble, but no one has the heart to punish them
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in villains
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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of scamps
Andrew Walsh,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Jan. 2026
McKelway, who wrote for the magazine from the nineteen-thirties to the sixties, specialized in true-crime stories, bringing to life a gallery of scamps and swindlers and impostors.
—
David Grann,
New Yorker,
19 Oct. 2025
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
Noun
The history of The Little Rascals dates back to the 1920s, when a series of short films called our Our Gang introduced audiences to lovable scamps like Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, and Porky.
—
Andrew Walsh,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Jan. 2026
McKelway, who wrote for the magazine from the nineteen-thirties to the sixties, specialized in true-crime stories, bringing to life a gallery of scamps and swindlers and impostors.
—
David Grann,
New Yorker,
19 Oct. 2025
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scamps
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.
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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.
Noun
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The new production will follow Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo from their comic book origins to becoming global pop culture icons, battling familiar villains along the way.
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Trump’s great leaders were villains, not heroes.
Verb
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Gentleman thief Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven) circles the prize while Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) bungles the pursuit with sublime obliviousness.
Noun
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The 152 rooms celebrate Tasmania’s cultural and creative spirit, from the contemporary paintings of thylacines and Tasmanian devils, to the Blackheart sassafras ceiling inlays.
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But there are lots of potential devils in the details (otherwise there’d be little need for experimental reactors).
Noun
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These brutes commonly exceed 50 pounds.
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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.
Verb
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But there’s nothing shocking or subversive about this movie, which plays like proficient, forgettable straight-to-streaming fare for the first ninety minutes and then botches its big, bloody finale.
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Continue reading … FACT CHECK – Washington Post botches Israel-Gaza history leading to major correction.
Noun
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Or a group of shipwrecked boys turning into savages and killing one another?
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The Indians in Westerns had war paint and whooped like savages.
Verb
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Sparks muffs the punt and South Alabama recovers on Texas State's 39-yard line.
Cite this Entry
“Scamps.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scamps. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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