prank

prank n Prank, caper, antic, monkeyshine, dido mean a playful, often a mischievous, act or trick.

Prank carries the strongest implication of devilry of all these words, though there is little suggestion of malice and primary emphasis upon the practical joke

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the sons are wild and wanton sons, and perform all the pranks to be expected of them— T. S. Eliot

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when, with elfin delight, he perpetrates a successful practical joke—or when somebody makes him the butt of such a prank—J. A. Morris

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Caper can suggest carefree frisking and bounding like a kid and is especially applicable to capricious or reckless escapades

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relaxed acceptance of the most outlandish capers— Spectorsky

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it will be sad if his journalistic facility, his quirks and capers, obscure his excellence as a writer— A. C. Ward

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Antic stresses the ludicrousness and grotesqueness of the movements, gestures, and postures rather than the spirit in which the acts or tricks are performed

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the deliberately childish antics of comedians: the affected high voices, the giggles, the silly faces— Wouk

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the antics of a clown

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Sometimes, however, it suggests showing off

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watch the antics of boys climbing poles

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a small boy whose antics were somewhat amusing, but not understandable— Terry Southern

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Monkeyshine may be applied to a caper or antic, but, especially in the plural, the term typically applies to behavior or a trick that attracts attention by its inappropriateness and often impropriety

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scientists on the alert for any atomic monkey-shines— McCarten

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have been at this monkeyshine for a generation. Today a loaf of "bread" looks decep-tively real— Philip Wylie

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students of political monkey-shines— Newsweek

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Dido, also frequently used in the plural, applies to an absurd, foolish, or mischievous act and may come close to monkeyshine in suggesting obtrusive inappropriateness

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this and ancillary didoes culminate in a whopper of an orgy— Perelman

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onetime mayor . . . whose unstatesmanlike didoes made a circus of municipal affairs— Time

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Analogous words: frolic, gambol, rollick, sport, play (see under PLAY vb): levity, *lightness, frivolity: vagary, *caprice, freak, fancy, whim, whimsy, conceit