Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Truant
Tru′ant
,Noun.
[F.
truand
, OF. truant
, a vagrant, beggar; of Celtic origin; cf. W. tru
, truan
, wretched, miserable, truan
a wretch, Ir. trogha
miserable, Gael. truaghan
a poor, distressed, or wretched creature, truagh
wretched.] One who stays away from business or any duty; especially, one who stays out of school without leave; an idler; a loiterer; a shirk.
Dryden.
I have a
truant
been to chivalry. Shakespeare
To play truant
, to stray away; to loiter; especially, to stay out of school without leave.
Sir T. Browne
Tru′ant
,Adj.
Wandering from business or duty; loitering; idle, and shirking duty;
as, a
. truant
boyWhile
Played barefoot on Olympus’ side.
truant
Jove, in infant pride,Played barefoot on Olympus’ side.
Trumbull.
Tru′ant
,Verb.
I.
[Cf. F.
truander
.] To idle away time; to loiter, or wander; to play the truant.
Shak.
By this means they lost their time and
truanted
on the fundamental grounds of saving knowledge. Lowell.
Tru′ant
,Verb.
T.
To idle away; to waste.
[R.]
I dare not be the author
Of
Of
truanting
the time. Ford.
Webster 1828 Edition
Truant
TRU'ANT
,Adj.
While truant Jove, in infant price,
Play'd barefoot on Olympus'side.
TRU'ANT
,Noun.
TRU'ANT
. v.i. To idle away time; to loiter or be absent from employment.Definition 2024
truant
truant
English
Adjective
truant (not comparable)
- 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.
- Wandering from business or duty; straying; loitering; idle, and shirking duty.
- 1603+, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2
- A truant disposition, good my lord.
- 1772, John Trumbull, The Owl and the Sparrow, p.149
- While truant Jove, in infant pride, / Play'd barefoot on Olympus' side.
- 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
- Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.}}
- 1603+, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2
Derived terms
Translations
Describing one who is truant, absent without permission
|
|
Noun
truant (plural truants)
- One who is absent without permission, especially from school.
Derived terms
Translations
One who is absent without permission
Verb
truant (third-person singular simple present truants, present participle truanting, simple past and past participle truanted)
- (intransitive) To play truant.
- the number of schoolchildren known to have truanted
- (transitive) To idle away; to waste.
- Ford
- I dare not be the author / Of truanting the time.
- Ford
- 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.