hi-jinks

A form of high jinks — An old Scottish parlour game in which people were chosen, usually by throwing dice, to perform some humorous act or drink a large amount of an alcoholic beverage, with a forfeit if they were unable to do so.

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Meanings

nounhi-jinks (uncountable)
  1. alternativeuncountableAlternative spelling of high jinks (alternative form of hijinks).

    Apparently the man had a reputation for hi[-]jinks, such as filing fake flight plans to deceive [Bill] Clinton's barnstorming rivals.

    2009, Taylor Branch, “Yeltsin and the Gingrich Revolution”, in The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, London; New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 195
    2 more examples

    It was a face familiar to millions of Americans around the country, an almost intimate face to anyone who'd ever watched a televised news program or any other national hi-jinks from Chicago.

    1971, Don Pendleton, Chicago Wipeout (The Executioner; book 8), New York, N.Y.: Open Road Integrated Media, published 2014, →ISBN

    Those bastards hadn't left the school and gone back to their hi-jinks like we thought. Not at all. They'd been looking for us, eager to bash our brains in.

    2005, Scott J. Evans, “Evil Deeds”, in Breathe Deep the Passing Wind, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN
Cite this entry
APA

hi-jinks. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hi-jinks

MLA

“hi-jinks.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hi-jinks. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “hi-jinks,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/hi-jinks.

Source: hi-jinks on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.