Definition of "prank"

prank

/pɹæŋk/

noun
plural pranks
1. A practical joke or mischievous trick.
  Quotations
  His pranks have been too broad to bear with.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iv]
  The harpies […] played their accustomed pranks.
  1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], (please specify |book=1 to 5)
2. (obsolete) An evil deed; a malicious trick, an act of cruel deception.
  Quotations
  Lilius Geraldus ſaith,that Hercules after all his mad prankes vpon his wife and children, was perfectly cured by a purge of Hellebor,which an Anticyrian adminiſtred vnto him.
  1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Simples purging melancholy downeward”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, partition 2, section 4, member 2, subsection 2, page 311
verb
third-person singular simple present pranks, present participle pranking, simple past pranked, past participle pranked or (archaic) prankt
1. (transitive) To perform a practical joke on; to trick.
  Quotations
  “If someone’s pranking me,” Rowlands remembered thinking, “they’re going to great lengths to make it work.”
  2007 May 13, Karen Crouse, “Still Invitation Only, but Jets Widen Door for Camp”, in New York Times‎
2. (transitive, slang) To call someone's phone and promptly hang up
3. (transitive, archaic) To adorn in a showy manner; to dress or equip ostentatiously.
  Quotations
  In sumptuous tire she ioyd her selfe to prancke
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 36
  And there a Seaſon atween June and May, / Half prankt with Spring, with Summer half imbrown'd, / A liſtleſs Climate made, where, Sooth to ſay, / No living Wight could work, ne cared even for Play.
  1748, James Thomson, The Castle of Indolence, B:II
  Flora, wanton-eyedFor birth, and with all flowrets prankt and pied:
  1880, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, For Spring, by Sandro Botticelli, lines 2–3
4. (intransitive) To make an ostentatious show.
  Quotations
  White houses prank where once were huts.
  1867, Matthew Arnold, “Obermann Once More”, in New Poems
adjective
1. (obsolete) Full of gambols or tricks.

Definition of "prank"

prank

noun

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verb

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adjective