mischieve

present singular third person mischieves · participle present mischieving · participle past mischieved · past mischieved · alternative mischief

1. obsoleteTo destroy.
2. ScotlandTo damage, do harm to; to injure.

   I have read of Augustine, that once by wandring out of his way, he escaped one who lay in wait to mischieve him;

   1650, Moses his choice, with his eye fixed upon heaven, page 54

   2 more examples

   thenne sire Tristram wold make no lenger delayes but lasshed at sir Lamorak / & thus they foughte longe /[…]/ Thenne sir Tristram seid to sir Lamorak in alle my lyf mette I neuer with suche a knyght that was soo bygge and well brethed as ye be / therfore said syre Tristram hit were pyte / that ony of vs both shold here be meschyeued

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book IX

   […] ſo when the two Ladders were taken down, no Man living could come down to me without miſchieving himſelf; […]

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 191