play hooky
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to skip school or work without permission
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Vắng mặt trường học hoặc công việc mà không được phép
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: play hook
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The kids decided to play hooky and go to the beach
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “play hooky” mean?
to skip school or work without permission Literally: play hook
Is “play hooky” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.