How to Use puckish in a Sentence

puckish

adjective
  • He had a puckish smile on his face.
  • Those who knew him well said the gruff exterior concealed a shy man with a puckish wit.
    — New York Times, 9 Dec. 2019
  • This puckish presentation may not be for those who feign at flatus.
    — Natasha Gural, Forbes, 12 Jan. 2025
  • But his lines have softened with age; his manner has grown puckish and approachable.
    — Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, 27 Mar. 2023
  • With a puckish sense of humor, fate placed Strange at the scene of his diminishment.
    — Marcus Hayes, Philly.com, 18 June 2018
  • Ancient deities endure in many forms, as two artists observe in the show’s most puckish offerings.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2020
  • The best have a puckish joyousness, even when the material is dark.
    — Los Angeles Times, 31 July 2019
  • Ismail’s Louis is as squirmy as a worm, then puckish as a sprite in his flirtations with Joe.
    — Lily Janiak, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Apr. 2018
  • Throughout it all, he's maintained a puckish, playful approach.
    — Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 8 Feb. 2026
  • Bambi is the star, but a puckish, toothy, yellow-nosed rabbit named Thumper almost hops off with the picture.
    — Lily Rothman, Time, 1 Jan. 1950
  • And chuckled with Spicy, Austin’s own puckish cartoonist.
    — Steve Sewall, Chicago Tribune, 18 Aug. 2025
  • The lead guitar sounds less like a guitar than a bizarro dial tone — a round, rich, buzzing that Sohn spins into puckish, prickly riffs.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 21 Sep. 2022
  • In the yard, several small bronze sculptures of Benglis’s — squat, pocked, puckish — were scattered around the garden.
    — Sasha Weiss Sasha Weiss Photographs By Justin French Nick Haramis Photographs By Lise Sarfati Styled By Suzanne Koller Adam Bradley Photographs By D’angelo Lovell Williams Styled By Ian Bradley Susan Dominus Photographs By Luis Alberto Rodriguez Styled By Charlotte Collet, New York Times, 13 Oct. 2022
  • With this at the top of his mind, even the most eye-popping set piece becomes a puckish way of speaking truth to power — like a very, very elaborate prank.
    — Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2022
  • The puckish figure draws heavily on Nordic fairy tales, including stories of elves.
    — Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, 24 Mar. 2026
  • His cynical joie de vivre, his puckish smile, his elevation of curiosity as a virtue.
    — Southern Living, 11 June 2018
  • Another highlight is the title track, an ode to a puckish invisible friend who takes the heat for our childhood misdeeds.
    — Jordan Runtagh, PEOPLE.com, 14 Jan. 2022
  • His work has been all over the place quality-wise, yet Smoking distills his punkish, puckish vibe down to one big pop-cultural goof.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 1 Apr. 2023
  • Mysterious shapes in the shrubbery add humor to this puckish escapade for children ages 3-6.
    — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 27 May 2022
  • The latter returns for a second season with the puckish Tom Hiddleston in the title role.
    — Nina Metz, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Sep. 2023
  • Hobert’s writing is puckish, often delivered in a half-speaking, half-singing register that emphasizes her words above melody.
    — Carrie Battan, Vulture, 15 Jan. 2026
  • Like O’Brien, Tommy is puckish and up for anything, especially a good gag.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 6 Apr. 2026
  • That kind of puckish, mildly subversive humor runs throughout the book, which is a calm and sagacious volume rendered somewhat somber by the news of his passing.
    — Steve Donoghue, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 July 2019
  • George knows sign language and has a puckish sense of humor, and Davis’ conversations with him have a rough, familial dynamic.
    — Tasha Robinson, The Verge, 11 Apr. 2018
  • While it’s set in our extended pre-apocalyptic present, the movie, equal parts puckish and poignant, pushes the conversation forward.
    — Eleanor Cummins, The New Republic, 5 Jan. 2022
  • The results can be puckish, as when Elwood’s reflection appears in the chrome side of the iron that Hattie is sliding across an ironing board.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 6 Dec. 2024
  • Today in London, that ethos translated to a parade of punkish, puckish models with eyes framed in graphic eyeshadow in shades of hot pink and cream.
    — Calin Van Paris, Vogue, 14 Feb. 2020
  • One is struck, amid the sombre events, by the joyous, puckish restlessness of the storytelling, which seems to stick to a character’s point of view only to veer away, mid-sentence.
    — James Wood, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021
  • Just as notable as Cox’s puckish attitude was the clothing selected for his Late Show appearance.
    — Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 19 Apr. 2023
  • On its Fourth of July cover one year, a puckish rendition of Maoist-style propaganda appeared.
    — Michael D. Breidenbach, The Atlantic, 4 July 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'puckish.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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