truant
Americannoun
-
truants
plural
-
a student who stays away from school without permission.
-
a person who shirks or neglects a duty.
- Synonyms:
- malingerer, loafer, layabout, shirker, idler
adjective
-
absent from school without permission.
-
neglectful of duty or responsibility; idle.
-
of, relating to, or characteristic of a person who neglects a duty, responsibility, or required attendance.
verb (used without object)
-
truants,
present (3rd person singular)
-
truanted,
past participle, past
-
truanting
present participle
noun
adjective
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
truantsimple
-
truantssimple
-
have truantedperfect
-
has truantedperfect
-
am truantingprogressive
-
are truantingprogressive
-
is truantingprogressive
-
have been truantingperfect progressive
-
has been truantingperfect progressive
Past
-
truantedsimple
-
had truantedperfect
-
was truantingprogressive
-
were truantingprogressive
-
had been truantingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of truant
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English from Old French: “vagrant, beggar” from Celtic; compare Welsh truan “wretched, wretch”
Explanation
A truant is a student who is out of school without permission. If you skip school to go shopping with your friends, you are a truant. A person can be a truant, and behavior can be described as truant too, since it's both a noun and an adjective. Your teacher might call you a truant if you skip school and if you didn't show up at your donut shop job, you would also be a truant donut slinger. In fact, anyone who's unexpectedly absent can be described as truant. The Old French truant describes a beggar, especially one who lives this way by choice.
Vocabulary lists containing truant
"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
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Nobody's Home: Synonyms For "Absent"
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Rebound
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In June 1530 Hans Holbein the Younger was rounded up for being a truant from the Reformed Church and its newfangled Eucharist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
As one might have predicted, the trio of 14-year-old supposedly truant adolescents quickly overwhelmed the comic.
From Salon ● Jun. 1, 2025
And man, that idea, that image of 22 public integrity lawyers locked in a room like truant children until they knuckle under, and somebody is going to file it.
From Slate ● Feb. 14, 2025
It wasn’t a truant officer at his door, though — no one had ever come knocking about that.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 19, 2023
They stowed most of their gear in a collapsed building far from the center, a crumbling place that even truant uglies would probably avoid, packing only water purifiers, a flashlight, and a few food packets.
From "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld
Call them the two-year tooth truants, who diligently stayed away from dentists’ offices during the pandemic, eventually began to lean on it as an excuse and now need help alleviating their oral-health woes.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 1, 2022
There is no official data on absence due to school anxiety and many affected pupils are labelled truants but support groups are being flooded with calls.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2021
Sen. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, proposed a bill that would phase out the jailing of all runaways, as well as truants and other children considered at risk.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 26, 2019
Evelyn, when she was little, attended the Sleighton Farm School for Girls in Philadelphia, Barbara said, describing it as a place for chronic truants.
From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2017
“Are you aware that the school district has special police who go out searching for truants? They’re very good at their jobs, 1 assure you.”
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
Elwyn Edwards was a schoolboy who lived nearby and truanted so that he could join the protest.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2023
Only one of them was in school and she truanted most days.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2012
His outward hopes were blasted, and he returned with concentrated ardour to woo the muse, from whom he had so long truanted.
From Milton by Mark Pattison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
