Meanings
comparative more puckish · superlative most puckish
- Having a tendency to play tricks on people or tease people by making silly jokes about them; mischievous.
He has a puckish grin.
5 more examples
He has a puckish sense of humor.
She has a puckish attitude.
They are so puckish for their love of practical jokes.
Wolfowitz spoke softly to Yasa, who evidently had no idea who he was but responded with a puckish smile.
2007 April 2, John Cassidy, “The Next Crusade”, in The New Yorker“Chandler Bing,” wrote Matthew Perry in his puckish, self-mocking memoir, “changed the way that America spoke”.
2023 October 29, Zoe Williams, “‘An ironic, self-deprecating metrosexual’: how Matthew Perry captured the spirit of the age”, in The Guardian, →ISSNSynonyms: impish, mischievous
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveHaving a tendency to play tricks on people or tease people by making silly jokes about them; mischievous.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivenaughtily or annoyingly playful
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From Puck + -ish, after the mischievous fairy in English folklore who is also a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
puckish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puckish
“puckish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puckish. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “puckish,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/puckish.
Source: puckish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.