Added 9 October 2026
truant
/ˈtɹuːənt/ adjective
adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about truant at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- Shirking or wandering from business or duty; straying; hence, idle; loitering.
-
Of a student: absent from school without permission.
He didn’t graduate because he was chronically truant and didn’t have enough attendances to meet the requirement.
- Having no real substance; unimportant, vain, worthless.
noun
- An idle or lazy person; an idler.
- A student who is absent from school without permission; hence , a person who shirks or wanders from business or duty.
- Synonym of sturdy beggar (“a person who was fit and able to work, but lived as a beggar or vagrant instead”); hence, a worthless person; a rogue, a scoundrel.
verb
Origin
The adjective and noun are derived from Middle English truant, truand, truaund (“(adjective) idle; tending to vagrancy (uncertain; may be a use of the noun); (noun) beggar; mendicant friar; vagrant, wanderer; worthless person, rogue, scoundrel; one who is absent without leave, truant; one who shirks duties”), from Old French truant, truand (“(adjective) beggarly; roguish; (noun) a beggar, vagabond; a rogue”) (modern French truand), probably of Celtic origin, possibly from Gaulish *trugan, or from Breton truan (“wretched”), from Proto-Celtic *taratrom, from Proto-Indo-European *térh₁-tro-m, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to drill, pierce; to rub; to turn”).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)