- playful
- playful, frolicsome, sportive, roguish, waggish, impish, mischievous mean given to play, jests, or tricks or indicative of such a disposition or mood.Playful stresses either lighthearted gaiety or merriment{
playful children
}{in a playful mood
}{a confiding, playful little animal, whom one . . . trained to do tricks— Sackville-West
}or a lack of seriousness or earnestness{his words were serious, but in his eyes there was a playful gleam
}{his pen was more playful than caustic— Williams & Pollard
}Frolicsome heightens the implications of playful; it carries a stronger suggestion of friskiness or prankishness or irresponsible merriment{as frolicsome as a bird upon a tree, or a breeze that makes merry with the leaves— Hawthorne
}{frolicsome sailors returning from their cruises . . . paraded through the streets— Nevins & Commager
}Sportive carries a stronger implication of jesting or of levity than either of the preceding words; the term sometimes implies merely excess of animal spirits, but it usually connotes a desire to evoke or provoke laughter{three generations of serious and of sportive writers wept and laughed over the venality of the senate— Macaulay
}Roguish not only heightens the implications of sportive, but it suggests an engaging naughtiness or slyness{"I don't think I shall want anything else when we've got a little garden; and I knew Aaron would dig it for us," she went on with roguish triumph— George Eliot
}{not a pretty girl or a roguish buck in the lot— Cooke
}Waggish suggests a less engaging sportiveness than roguish and one less delicate in its character; usually also the term carries a stronger suggestion of jocoseness or of jocularity{with all his overbearing roughness there was a strong dash of waggish good humor at bottom— Irving
}Impish adds to roguish a hint of elfish, malicious mockery{teasing . . . with impish laughter half suppressed— Hardy
}{he also displays impish ingenuity in picking his examples of error from the most dignified sources— Brit. Book News
}Mischievous combines the implications of frolicsome and impish{took a secret and mischievous pleasure in the bewilderment of her attendants— Stafford
}Although it may imply the doing of mischief (see mischief under INJURY 1) or the causing of an injury to others it commonly retains some suggestion of mingled playfulness and malice{the three mischievous, dark-eyed witches, who lounged in the stern of that comfortable old island gondola, . . . were a parcel of wicked hoydens, bent on mischief, who laughed in your face— Melville
}{the little buried eyes still watching ... in that mischievous, canny way, and . . . hatching out some further unpleasantness or scandal— Dahl
}Often it suggests little more than thoughtless indifference to the possible effects of one's sports, tricks, or practical jokes{a garden ruined by mischievous boys
}{she . . . was . . . waked by Meta, standing over her with a sponge, looking very mischievous— Yonge
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
