playing hooky 30231

playing hooky
buy playing hooky mugs, tshirts and magnetsSkipping school or work.

Play hooky, 'be absent from school without an excuse', is an Americanism first recorded around 1848. Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms gives this slightly later example: "He moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging, along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before." (Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer) And here's another example showing the extended use of the term: "I played hookey from the Appropriations