mischief-maker
mischief-maker — noun
1. Someone who enjoys causing arguments or problems between other people, often by
Someone who enjoys causing arguments or problems between other people, often by spreading rumours, telling tales, or stirring up bad feelings on purpose.
Christopher has a reputation as a mischief-maker who loves to spread gossip around the office.
reputation as a mischief-maker — typical descriptive collocation
Every village has its mischief-maker, and ours was the old shopkeeper on the corner.
every [community] has its mischief-maker — common idiomatic frame
The headmistress named Léa as the mischief-maker behind the science-lab flood.
A few mischief-makers in the crowd tried to start a fight after the match.
Kemi warned the newcomers that two mischief-makers on the team enjoyed setting colleagues against each other.
- troublemaker
more general; covers physical disruption and rule-breaking, not just social stirring
- agitator
stirring up political or group anger, often deliberately and on a larger scale
- rabble-rouser
rouses a crowd to anger or action; public-facing, not the quiet whispering kind
- instigator
starts a specific incident; doesn't suggest a repeat pattern the way mischief-maker does
- peacemaker
actively works to calm conflicts the mischief-maker creates
文法句型
a mischief-maker (in/among [group])
用法筆記
Subject is almost always a person (rarely a group); the word carries clear disapproval. Often used with possessives describing a community (`the village's mischief-maker`, `our office mischief-maker`) to mark a known repeat offender rather than a one-off incident.