Definition of "practical joke" [practical joke]

• A mischievous trick played on a person, especially one that causes the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The idea that the extraordinary narrative which has been called the Joyce-Armstrong Fragment is an elaborate practical joke evolved by some unknown person, cursed by a perverted and sinister sense of humour, has now been abandoned by all who have examined the matter."
• "One of his friends was in the stacks, maybe, Jason Dale or Kale Kramer, preparing to pull some kind of practical joke on the respectful people there; or maybe some girl, some Alicia Worthen, trying to graduate in a hurry before it was too late."
• "The charge is, indeed, very boldly made; but, like “Ranold of the Mist's” practical joke of putting the bread and cheese into a dead man's mouth, is, as Dugald Dalgetty says, “somewhat too wild and salvage, besides wasting the good victuals.”"