play hooky

English

Alternative forms

play hookey
play hookie (rare)

Etymology

See hooky for its origin; the construction of the phrase is in the same vein as play truant.

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Verb

play hooky (third-person singular simple present plays hooky, present participle playing hooky, simple past and past participle played hooky)

(idiomatic, US) To play truant; to avoid (informally: skip) school, work, or other duties (stay away from these without permission nor an excuse); to skive or to bunk off (UK);
Plenty of people played hooky from work to go see the movie on opening day.

Synonyms

see Thesaurus:play truant

Translations

to stay away from school, work, etc. without suitable permission or excuse

Catalan: fer campana (ca) (Catalonia), fer pila (Lleida), fer fugina (Valencia)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 逃學／逃学 (zh) (táoxué) (school), 曠課／旷课 (zh) (kuàngkè), 逃課／逃课 (zh) (táokè)
Czech: chodit za školu (cs)
Dutch: spijbelen (nl)
Finnish: lintsata (fi)
French: faire l'école buissonnière (fr), faire le mur (fr)
German: schwänzen (de), blaumachen (de)
Greek: κάνω κοπάνα (káno kopána)
Hebrew: הִתְפַּרְפֵּר‎ (he) (hitparpér) (slang)
Icelandic: skrópa
Italian: bigiare (it), marinare la scuola
Norwegian: skulke (no)
Polish: iść na wagary impf, pójść na wagary pf
Portuguese: matar aula, cabular aula, cabular (pt) (Brazil), gazetear, gazear (pt)
Romanian: chiuli (ro)
Russian: прогу́ливать (ru) impf (progúlivatʹ), прогуля́ть (ru) pf (proguljátʹ)
Spanish: (Spain) hacer novillos (es), (Argentina) hacerse la rata, capar clase (Colombia), chacharse (Bolivia), comer jobo (Puerto Rico), correrse la clase (Northern Spain, specifically Cantabria), echarse la pera (Ecuador), fullarse de clase (Spain's Balearic Islands), fumarse la clase (Spain), hacer borota (Northern Spain, specifically Navarra), hacer campana (Northeastern Spain), hacer la chancha (Chile), hacer chicarra (Spain, Basque Country), hacer la cimarra (es) (Chile), hacer fuchina (Central Eastern Spain), hacer monta (Western Spain, specifically Extremadura), hacer pellas (Spain, Madrid), hacer la rabona (Argentina, Southern Spain, Paraguay, Uruguay), hacerse la chupina (Northern Central Argentina), hacerse la piarda (Spain, specifically Malaga), hacerse la rata (Argentina, Uruguay), ratearse (Argentina, Uruguay), hacer la vaca (Peru), hacerse la yuta (Northwestern Argentina), hacer pira (Spain, Basque Country), hacer pirola (Northern Spain, specifically Aragon), irse de capiusa (Guatemala), irse de pinta (es)(Mexico), pinteársela (Mexico), jubilarse (Venezuela), latar (Northwestern Spain), palmar a clase (Northwestern Spain), pavearse (Panama), pegarse la huyona (Spain, Canary Islands), pelarse la clase (Central Eastern Spain), tirarse la pera (Peru), hacer la choca (Chile)
Swedish: skolka (sv)
Thai: โดด (th) (dòot)
Turkish: asmak (tr), kaçmak (tr), kaytarmak (tr), kırmak (tr)