lovable scalawag
- noun
- /ˈlʌvəbl ˈskæləˌwæɡ/
- Informal
:
pícaro encantador
- Everyone agrees that Jake is a lovable scalawag despite his endless practical jokes.
Examples
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Her grandfather had been a lovable scalawag in his youth, always getting into harmless mischief.
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In the movie, the main character plays a lovable scalawag who outsmarts the villains with charm.
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Everyone loves that lovable scalawag!
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My brother is such a lovable scalawag.
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Everyone agrees that Jake is a lovable scalawag despite his endless practical jokes.
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Her grandfather had been a lovable scalawag in his youth, always getting into harmless mischief.
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In the movie, the main character plays a lovable scalawag who outsmarts the villains with charm.
Synonyms
1
8.7
A playful person, often a child, who causes harmless trouble
A likable person who plays small tricks and breaks rules for fun
A person who acts silly in a warm, friendly way that makes others smile
Antonyms
How Endearing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'lovable' (evoking affection) modifies 'scalawag' (a mischievous person), yielding an endearing, roguish person. There is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift here and the adjective+noun pattern is a standard, cross-linguistically transparent formation, so a B1 learner who knows both words should understand the expression.
Etymology
The phrase lovable scalawag comes from the old word scalawag, which one popular story says was the name for a small, scruffy calf or naughty animal that caused trouble but was still liked. So a lovable scalawag means 'a mischievous person who is endearing'.