high jinks
noun/ˈhaɪ d͡ʒɪŋks/
Etymology Probably related to jink (“(verb) to make a quick evasive turn; to whirl about when dancing, to dance; (noun) a quick evasive turn”), probably originally onomatopoeic, expressing quick movement.
1
Games Scotland, Historical 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.
- [T]he frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of High Jinks. This game was played in several different ways. Most frequently the dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain, for a time, a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order. If they departed from the characters assigned, or if their memory proved treacherous in the repetition, they incurred forfeits, which were either compounded for by swallowing an additional bumper, or by paying a small sum towards the reckoning.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter XV, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 264–265:
2
Broadly Boisterous activity or behaviour; lively fun.
- Only one tutor has rooms here; and I should think, if he's a reading man, it wont be for long before he clears out; for all sorts of high jinks go on on the grass-plot, and the row on the staircases is often as bad, and not half so respectable, as it used to be in the middle passage in the last week of the half year.1859–1861, [Thomas Hughes], “St. Ambrose’s College”, in Tom Brown at Oxford: […], part 1st, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, published 1861, →OCLC, page 10:
- But given the funny hats and juvenile hijinx, it's hard to buy the play's more serious intentions.1988 January 15, Tom Boeker, “A Night at Dykes Who Date/Crusaders [theatre review]”, in Chicago Reader, Chicago, Ill.: Chicago Reader, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Oct 2022:
1 more example
- Day of the Dead stretches the zombie film just about as far as it can go – and the film [George Andrew] Romero wanted to make could have been even more challenging – but the horror movie audience is more interested in the partying hi-jinx of trendy monsters like [Dan] O'Bannon's funky zombies, Freddy Krueger or Herbert West.2011, Kim Newman, “Postscript: The Post-modern Horror Film”, in Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen since the 1960s, revised edition, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Nightmare Movies), page 288:
3
Broadly Tricky or waggish behaviour; mischief.
- High Jinks! High Jinks! High Jinks! The haggis has puttin' out the fire, and sealed up the boiler—1828 December, [John Wilson], “Noctes Ambrosianae. No. XL.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume XXIV, number CXLVI, part I, Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 690:
- That's what happened to me the last time you fired a high snowball. Peaches. That's why I didn't want you to try another while I'm around. You wait until I'm off the campus if you've got to indulge in high jinks.1912, Lester Chadwick [pseudonym; Howard Roger Garis], “Hitting a Teacher”, in Baseball Joe on the School Nine: Or Pitching for the Blue Banner (Baseball Joe Series; 2), New York, N.Y.: Cupples & Leon Company, →OCLC, page 3:
4 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:
- 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:
- Even though I have no arms or legs I did put my mom through some tough times. I did my share of rebellion and hi-jinx.2014 August 27, Kent Bell, “Hi-jinx Stories”, in Look Ma, No Hands, No Legs Either, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 41:
- Related terms
- prank