truant

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʊənt

Etymology

From Middle English truant, truand, trewande, trowant (= Middle Dutch trouwant, trawant, truwant), from Old French truand, truant (“a vagabond, beggar, rogue", also "beggarly, roguish”), of Celtic origin, perhaps from Gaulish *trugan, or from Breton truan. Cognate with Scottish Gaelic truaghan, Irish trogha (“destitute”), trogán, Breton truc (“beggar”), Welsh tru.

Adjective

truant (not comparable)

1. Absent without permission, especially from school.

   He didn't graduate because he was chronically truant and didn't have enough attendances to meet the requirement.

2. Wandering from business or duty; loitering; idle, and shirking duty.
   • Trumbull

     While truant Jove, in infant pride, / Played barefoot on Olympus' side.

Derived terms

• truant officer

Translations

Describing one who is truant, absent without permission

• Dutch: spijbelend (nl)
• Finnish: lintsaava, pinnaava

• Russian: прогуливающий (ru) (progúlivajuščij) 

Noun

truant (plural truants)

1. One who is absent without permission, especially from school.

Derived terms

• play truant

Translations

One who is absent without permission

• Dutch: spijbelaar (nl) m, verzuimen (nl)
• Finnish: lintsari, pinnari

• Russian: прогульщик (ru) (progúl'ščik) m 

Verb

truant (third-person singular simple present truants, present participle truanting, simple past and past participle truanted)

1. (intransitive) To play truant.

   the number of schoolchildren known to have truanted

2. (transitive) To idle away; to waste.
   • Ford

     I dare not be the author / Of truanting the time.

3. To idle away time.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

   • Lowell

     By this means they lost their time and truanted on the fundamental grounds of saving knowledge.