mooch

or mouch

[mooch]Slang.

See more synonyms for mooch on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with object)

to borrow (a small item or amount) without intending to return or repay it.
to get or take without paying or at another's expense; sponge: He always mooches cigarettes.
to beg.

to steal.

verb (used without object)

to skulk or sneak.
to loiter or wander about.

noun

Also mooch·er. a person who mooches.

Origin of mooch

1425–75; late Middle English, apparently variant of Middle English michen < Old French muchier to skulk, hide

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for moocher

cadger, down-and-out, bankrupt, dependent, vagrant, suppliant, mendicant, pauper, guttersnipe, almsman, almswoman, indigent

Examples from the Web for moocher

Contemporary Examples of moocher

Race is also embedded in the whole set of presumptions about the 47 percent and the “moocher class.”
Why You Can’t Tell the Truth About Race
Michael Tomasky
November 3, 2014

Historical Examples of moocher

The English moocher has to resort to his "gag," and his "lurks" are almost innumerable.
Tramping with Tramps
Josiah Flynt
The fellow was correct about the clothes and the filthiness of the English moocher.
Tramping with Tramps
Josiah Flynt
I'm the only moocher in this 'ouse, an' I want you to know it.
Tramping with Tramps
Josiah Flynt
The giant was plunged in gloomy abstraction, and Vetch and the Moocher interchanged a significant glance.
For the Term of His Natural Life
Marcus Clarke
Vetch skipped nimbly on one side, but Gabbett struck the Moocher on the forehead with the axe.
For the Term of His Natural Life
Marcus Clarke

British Dictionary definitions for moocher

mooch

verb slang

(intr often foll by around) to loiter or walk aimlessly
(intr) to behave in an apathetic way
(intr) to sneak or lurk; skulk
(tr) to cadge
(tr) mainly US and Canadian to steal

Derived Formsmoocher, noun

Word Origin for mooch

C17: perhaps from Old French muchier to skulk

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for moocher

"beggar, scrounger," 1857, agent noun from mooch (v.).

mooch

mid-15c., "pretend poverty," probably from Old French muchier, mucier "to hide, sulk, conceal, hide away, keep out of sight," of uncertain origin, perhaps from Celtic or Germanic (Liberman prefers the latter, Klein the former). Or the word may be a variant of Middle English mucchen "to hoard, be stingy" (c.1300), probably originally "to keep coins in one's nightcap," from mucche "nightcap," from Middle Dutch muste "cap, nightcap," ultimately from Medieval Latin almucia, of unknown origin. Sense of "sponge off others" first recorded 1857.

Whatever the distant origin of mooch, the verb *mycan and its cognates have been part of European slang for at least two millennia. [Liberman]

Related: Mooched; mooching. As a noun meaning "a moocher," from 1914.