Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rascal

Ras′cal (răs′kal), n. [OE. rascaille rabble, probably from an OF. racaille, F. racaille the rabble, rubbish, probably akin to F. racler to scrape, (assumed) LL. rasiculare, rasicare, fr. L. radere, rasum. See Rase, v.]

1. One of the rabble; a low, common sort of person or creature; collectively, the rabble; the common herd; also, a lean, ill-conditioned beast, esp. a deer. [Obs.]

He smote of the people seventy men, and fifty thousand of the rascal. Wyclif (1 Kings [1 Samuel] vi. 19).

Poor men alone? No, no; the noblest deer hath them [horns] as huge as the rascal. Shak.

2. A mean, trickish fellow; a base, dishonest person; a rogue; a scoundrel; a trickster.

For I have sense to serve my turn in store, And he's a rascal who pretends to more. Dryden.

Ras′cal, a. Of or pertaining to the common herd or common people; low; mean; base. "The rascal many." Spenser. "The rascal people." Shak.

While she called me rascal fiddler. Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.