scapegrace

From scape (“(archaic) escape”) +‎ grace (“grace of god”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈskeɪpɡɹeɪs/

scapegrace (plural scapegraces)

1. A wild and reckless person (especially a boy); a scoundrel.
   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 4, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     He is now laden with that superabundant energy which makes a fool of a man, and a scapegrace of a boy, and he wants to work it off.

   • 2002, Jonathan Shay, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming:

     An infantry officer in the trenches, Graves wrote of his rocky and scapegrace return to civilian life: "I still had the Army Habit of commandeering anything of uncertain ownership that I found lying about; also a difficulty in telling the truth--it was always easier for me now, when charged with any fault, to lie my way out in Army style."

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:scapegrace.

• black sheep, rascal, rogue; see also Thesaurus:villain