A small child or a mischievous person, often used affectionately.
From Old Norse 'tík' meaning a female dog, but by medieval times it was applied to small annoying creatures and eventually small children, likely because of their wild behavior.
The word 'tyke' shows how language evolves—it started as an insult comparing someone to a dog, but over centuries flipped into something cute and endearing, which is called 'amelioration' in linguistics!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.