# Mitch

/ˈmɪtʃ/ (US)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/mitch
Updated: 2026-08-15

## Senses

### 1. to play truant

verb · CEFR C2 · Dialect

to stay away from school without a good reason.

For teachers: 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.

Usage: Often used with the preposition 'from' or as an intransitive verb.

### 2. to steal or skulk

verb · CEFR C2 · Dialect · Archaic

to steal small things or to hide away so no one sees you.

For teachers: 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.

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.

## Examples

- He decided to mitch from school to go to the beach.
- The manager noticed that several employees would mitch on Friday afternoons when the weather was warm.
- While the term is less common in standard southern dialects, local authorities in the north still monitor those who mitch regularly, as chronic truancy often correlates with lower academic achievement.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.