… you feel shock, dismay, then anger as it dawns on you that you've been pranked … Lucius Shepard
On the day of the ceremony, a stuntwoman pal, dressed to look like Swanson, kicked things off by pranking the audience and falling down a flight of stairs. (The crowd went from gasping to laughing once the ruse was revealed.) Lorenzo Benet
Noun He enjoys playing pranks on his friends. as a prank, several students managed to change all the classroom clocks to different times
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Though that was later revealed to be a prank, the jeweler eventually minted 499 physical 18k gold TiffCoins, priced at $9,999 and made available during a 24-hour window on Tiffany’s website. Christine Mui, Fortune, 1 Aug. 2022 Is Microsoft Defender a prank, a marketing stunt being played by Microsoft’s PR department? Barry Collins, Forbes, 2 July 2022 In season 8 of Vanderpump Rules, Schwartz and Maloney got in an argument about a prank costar Jax Taylor played on Tom Sandoval. Jessica Booth, Peoplemag, 31 Aug. 2022 The elaborate high school graduation prank—dubbed The Big Rick by its architects—was one of the largest rickrolls to ever take place, taking months of planning to pull off.WIRED, 24 Aug. 2022 One evening, as a drunken prank, Sheene, Jr., set off a fire alarm near the Bidens’ home, causing a commotion. Adam Entous, The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2022 Seth McTigue writes, directs and stars as the leader of a shady group hired to kidnap a young CEO (Sam Song Li) as a birthday prank by the guy's black-sheep older brother (Roy Huang), a plan that goes sideways when the criminals get greedy. Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 7 July 2022 People will assume that this is just another prank or prankster trying to be funny. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 26 Aug. 2022 Hart’s prank was not only in response to Cannon’s growing list of kids. Tim Chan, Rolling Stone, 24 Aug. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
obsolete prank to play tricks
Verb (2)
probably from Dutch pronken to strut; akin to Middle High German gebrunkel glitter of metal