the.com/hijinks
Trouble with a wink — chaos that insists on being called fun.
means Rowdy, mischievous fun or pranks — boisterous shenanigans more playful than harmful.
from Origin genuinely murky. Likely from 'high' (rowdy excess) plus 'jinks,' an old Scots/English term tied to a drinking game involving dice or forfeits — the loser had to perform a stunt or down a drink. By the 1700s 'high jinks' meant exactly that kind of rowdy party game, and the phrase drifted into general use for any boisterous, prank-filled fun. No solid evidence links it to anything more exotic than that tavern game.
- origin
- from hey jinks, old dice-game slang
- legal cousin
- shenanigans, its less mischievous sibling
- tone rule
- implies nobody actually got hurt
- usage
- always plural, never just one hijink