play hooky

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 (General Australian): (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 — see also skip

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)
Danish: pjække, skulke
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
Korean: 땡땡이치다 (ttaengttaeng'ichida)
Norwegian: skulke (no)
Persian: جیم زدن (jim zadan)
Polish: iść na wagary impf, pójść na wagary pf
Portuguese: matar aula, cabular aula, cabular (pt) (Brazil), gazetear, gazear (pt)
Romanian: chiuli (ro), trage chiulul
Russian: прогу́ливать (ru) impf (progúlivatʹ), прогуля́ть (ru) pf (proguljátʹ)
Spanish: hacer novillos (es), hacerse la rata, capar clase, comer jobo, echarse / tirarse la pera, hacerse la chupina / vaca / yuta, irse de capiuza, pavear (Panama), chacharse, correrse / fumarse / pelarse la clase, fullarse de clase, hacer borota / chicarra / fuchina / monta / pira, hacer campana, hacer la chancha, hacer la cimarra (es), hacer pellas, hacer rabona, hacerse la piarda, ratearse, hacer pirola, irse de pinta (es), pinteársela, jubilarse, latar, palmar a clase, pegarse la huyona, hacer la choca, escaquearse (es), pirar (es)
Swedish: skolka (sv)
Thai: โดด (th) (dòot)
Turkish: asmak (tr), kaçmak (tr), kaytarmak (tr), kırmak (tr)