What's the difference between mischief and misdeed?

Mischief


Definition:

  • (n.) Harm; damage; esp., disarrangement of order; trouble or vexation caused by human agency or by some living being, intentionally or not; often, calamity, mishap; trivial evil caused by thoughtlessness, or in sport.
  • (n.) Cause of trouble or vexation; trouble.
  • (v. t.) To do harm to.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) They want to send a very clear message to China that they are serious about this.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest This image from the US navy purportedly shows Chinese dredging vessels in the waters around Mischief reef in the disputed Spratly archipelago in May 2015.
  • (2) Steering the debate through these turbulent waters with more than his usual sense of mischief was David Dimbleby .
  • (3) And he was not above a spot of mischief on that score, imagining perhaps - and despite the prime minster's known stance – a time of closer European integration.
  • (4) | Howard W French Read more In the South China Sea, China has, by massive dredging operations, turned submerged reefs with names out of the novels of Joseph Conrad – Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef – into artificial islands, and is completing a 3,000m runway on Fiery Cross.
  • (5) Nelson said: "Against the cacophony of the 24-hour news era, there has never been a greater need for what the Spectator offers: wit, style, mischief, elegance of thought and independence of opinion.
  • (6) Their carefully judged mischief lightened the whole mixture like stiffly beaten egg-whites.
  • (7) Campaigning before the June election Demirtaş had been full of mischief, needling Erdoğan, making fun of the AKP’s gaffes.
  • (8) He had a chirpy self-confidence even then and a sense of humour, but what made him attractive to a journalist was his enthusiasm for mischief.
  • (9) Did an implied "come up and see my target seat" let a political supremo make passes at women well out of his league – or did they make it up and risk all for mischief?
  • (10) He wrote with mischief and a sometimes acid eye about the theatre of politics.
  • (11) There is a new thirst for characters, for mischief-makers and rascals, for politicians whose mistakes make them more accessible to the rest of us.
  • (12) If they are not rascally Tories making mischief or communist infiltrators, then they are leftie romantics, their heads in a dwam and full of ideals incompatible with modern, monetarist Britain.
  • (13) The anecdote describes both his ego and his attachment to mischief-making – and it might even be true.
  • (14) Some people have tried to make mischief by claiming that the pupil premium is not additional money.
  • (15) 'Positive points are difficult to find today,' he said in that gnomic way of his that falls between irony and mischief.
  • (16) In the fevered Daily Mail version, this fact suggests a nefarious and hyperactive court, up to mischief and rejoicing in 'overruling' national authorities, better to promote the interests of sex offenders and the homicidal.
  • (17) US manoeuvre in South China Sea leaves little wiggle room with China Read more The guided-missile destroyer reportedly received orders to travel within 12 nautical miles (22.2km, or 13.8 miles) of the Spratlys’ Mischief and Subi reefs, which are at the heart of a controversial Chinese island building campaign that has soured ties between Washington and Beijing.
  • (18) I suspect that messrs Fry and Connolly – who grew up watching this man segue from gar- landed stage-thesp to tireless campaigner (Stonewall, women's and children's rights) to Hollywood catnip to that dreadful position for anyone with a fine remaining sense of mischief: being on the cusp of national-treasure status – were equally conscious of the company they were in.
  • (19) The introduction of Olsen in place of the sad and utterly disorientated McGrath for the last 15 minutes provided no answers as Oxford's willingness and determination to push wide down the flanks where Phillips was always a source of mischief only served to underline the frailty to United's current defensive framework.
  • (20) Gizewski could be accused of eccentricity (there is also a long letter to Social Democrat party members on his site, explaining why they should have voted against a coalition with Merkel's party), and perhaps of wilful mischief – he could have just linked to one of the thousands of other scans of Mein Kampf you can find on Google.

Misdeed


Definition:

  • (n.) An evil deed; a wicked action.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Only specific areas of psychiatry may be found guilty of misdeeds, but psychiatry as a whole bears an historical responsibility for the terrible events in Nazi Germany.
  • (2) If that attitude could sometimes frustrate senior editors’ desire to raise standards – if it could, in the end, be blamed for the calamitous failure to spot the misdeeds of Johann Hari – it was also the only thing that kept the paper from falling apart completely: an irresistibly romantic underdog spirit, a sense that since this plainly wasn’t a viable business, it had to be a cause.
  • (3) Halting print runs, closing down websites, silencing radio stations and blacking out TV screens are all ways of concealing misdeeds, preventing scrutiny or simply blocking alternative viewpoints.
  • (4) This may well be true, but his patrons seem more interested in songs about the very misdeeds which landed them in jail.
  • (5) There is a recommendation for a duty of candour to be placed in the NHS constitution, obliging hospitals to be "honest, open and truthful", in effect an admonishment for past misdeeds.
  • (6) Dalli, in a videoed interview with a Brussels political paper, said the investigators' report "stated there was no proof at all that I was involved in any misdeed" and that no decision of the commission had been jeopardised.
  • (7) RBS has so far set aside £5.4bn to cover the cost of past errors and misdeeds, according to its results of the first three months of 2015 .
  • (8) Again, it wasn’t an army unit that was tasked to do the misdeed; rather it was a sort of patchwork, a random collection of guys summoned to do the killings, to their surprise, against their own will and interest, and it was so clandestine that the perpetrators hid it from their most immediate commander.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Karadžić with Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladić in 1995.
  • (9) Liu was singled out as one of the disaster's primary culprits , and state media began to highlight his misdeeds and gloss over his decades of achievement.
  • (10) J'accuse, the track in question, borrows its title from Emile Zola's famous denunciation of the French government in 1898 over the infamous Dreyfus affair and places Awadi as an uncompromisingly political animal, castigating France, America, Belgium and Africa for their role in colonial and post-colonial misdeeds.
  • (11) HSBC, in comparison, has ten times the revenue and 10 times as many seven-figure earners: Watch it below, or on her site here (scroll to 2.00m in) Louise has also helped cover Justin Bieber's misdeeds for the Guardian today - Justin Bieber's late O2 appearance – he's lost at least one (adult) Belieber .
  • (12) There were two earlier inquiries into their misdeeds.
  • (13) If one demands a far-left political agenda, a public embrace of socialism and is unwilling to forgive past misdeeds like that Iraq war vote, Sanders is your guy.
  • (14) Lindqvist suggests that the British should learn from Germans in reflecting on their misdeeds.
  • (15) But it happened.” Interviewed as part of a BBC documentary to be shown later this week, Armstrong did, however, offer something that began to resemble an apology for his misdeeds, although it came with the same defence that he has offered since the end of 2012 – that his doping was a generational phenomenon.
  • (16) I think taxpayers will be horrified … I don’t know if corruption is a strong enough word for it.” The fines from the FCA go to Treasury coffers as a result of rule changes imposed by Osborne in the wake of the Libor rigging crisis two years ago to prevent the proceeds of misdeeds going to the City regulator as they had done in the past.
  • (17) Michelle's misdeed was shacking up with Steve, who weathered the worst of the ensuing shitstorm by buggering off to visit mum Liz in the Costa del Convenient.
  • (18) It has detracted from the great work which you do for our customers on a daily basis and from the major accomplishments of the past five years.” Horta-Osório has stressed the importance of maintaining high standards of behaviour to Lloyds staff, which has paid multiple fines and billions of pounds in customer compensation for past misdeeds.
  • (19) The past has begun to follow us, and all of our misdeeds remain remembered.
  • (20) Berezovsky decamped to Britain where he led a noisy campaign against Putin, accusing him of numerous misdeeds.