Word
mitch
Phoneticsmitch
/ˈmɪtʃ/
Definitions
01to play truant
v. to stay away from school without a good reason.
v. to be absent from school without a valid excuse; to play truant. Primarily used in Ireland and parts of Wales.
“The boys decided to mitch from school and spend the afternoon at the beach.”
“He was caught mitching from his afternoon classes after a teacher spotted him wandering through the town centre.”
Dialect
Usage
Often used with the preposition 'from' or as an intransitive verb.
Synonyms
Antonyms
02to steal or skulk
v. to steal small things or to hide away so no one sees you.
v. to pilfer or filch; alternatively, to skulk or lurk out of sight. These senses are largely restricted to specific regional British dialects.
“The old stories tell of creatures that mitch in the shadows of the forest.”
“In certain regional variations of English, the term was historically used to describe the act of mitching small items from a market stall.”
Dialect · Archaic
Teaching tip
These senses are very rare and mostly found in historical dialect studies; learners will almost exclusively encounter the 'truancy' sense in modern speech.
Synonyms
Idioms
go on the mitch — to skip school; to play truant
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/mitch