Words at Play : 22 Charming Words for Nasty People
Definition:
rascal; rogue
Examples:
"'Not by my will,' said Mr. Vincy. 'I shall have enough to do this year, with an idle scamp of a son, without paying for wedding-clothes.'" – George Eliot, Middlemarch, 1871-2
"British director Guy Ritchie took Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes out of mothballs in 2009, giving him a sarcastic and kinetic update with the help of lovable scamp Robert Downey Jr." – Matthew Odam, Austin American-Statesman, December 16, 2011
About the Word:
Scamp once functioned as a verb meaning "to roam about idly" (think scamper). The noun we've featured here appeared later, and has a more playful overtone than some other words on this list.
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