truant
/ˈtruːənt
/noun
A pupil who stays away from school without leave or explanation.Known truants were staying in school and had been deterred from leaving school grounds....
- The school collaborates with a charity to inspire and re-engage underachieving pupils and chronic truants.
- But she wonders if ministers quite understand the real world when she hears ideas such as head teachers' issuing fixed penalty notice fines to truants ' parents.
Synonyms
absentee, non-attender
British informal skiver
Australian/New Zealand informal wag
adjective
1(Of a pupil) being a truant: truant children...
- He sounded like the school headmaster quietly but firmly dressing down a truant pupil.
- Having been a truant pupil himself, Mark was keen to ensure that they did not follow in his footsteps, although they were rarely excused from helping him with his own projects.
- Under the scheme, truant pupils are identified and the welfare service tries to help them.
1.1Wandering; straying: her truant husband...
- Two grown daughters in the family join the truant male whenever the old man launches into story.
- Here are the other truant titans, along with their stated reasons for missing the premier IFBB contest.
- There the boy is captured by Jack's colleagues, who have been commanded by the Lord to kill their truant captain.
verb [no object]
another way of saying play truant below. if my daughter had been truanting from school I would have been informed...
- In North Yorkshire, the figures were a little better with 17 children found truanting, eight of whom were with an adult.
- A young person can end up facing a children's panel - or ‘hearing’ - for criminal activity, truanting, running away from home or equally because they are at risk from physical abuse or neglect.
- Boys who had been truanting and priding themselves on being cheeky and ‘hard ‘turned out to be brilliant at woodwork.
Phrases
play truant
Origin
Middle English (denoting a person begging through choice rather than necessity): from Old French, probably ultimately of Celtic origin; compare with Welsh truan, Scottish Gaelic truaghan 'wretched'.
In the 13th century a truant was someone who begged out of choice rather than necessity, what the Elizabethans called ‘a sturdy beggar’. The idea of voluntary idleness led to its application in the later medieval period to children staying away from school without permission. The word came from Old French, but is probably ultimately of Celtic origin, related to Welsh truan and Scottish Gaelic truaghan ‘wretched’.