hookey

We're still at the awkward age, they tell us, and too much mustn't be expected of raw youth, especially of delinquent youth that plays hookey from the Sunday-School of civilization.

Canada Finds Her Voice 1949

Whenever he played hookey from the boarding school he attended, and I understand his record in this phase of his school life compared very favourably with that of other boys, he was usually found at the theatre, helping the stage hands or helping at the rehearsals.

The Theatre As We Know It 1938

But the pupils were in almost unanimous opposition, because Mr. McNanly's unheralded advent at any one's house resulted frequently in the discovery that some favorite child had been playing "hookey," which means (I will say to the uninitiated, if any such there be) absenting one's self from school without permission, to go on a fishing or a swimming frolic.

She Makes Her Mouth Small & Round & Other Stories 2010

But the pupils were in almost unanimous opposition, because Mr. McNanly's unheralded advent at any one's house resulted frequently in the discovery that some favorite child had been playing "hookey," which means (I will say to the uninitiated, if any such there be) absenting one's self from school without permission, to go on a fishing or a swimming frolic.

Memoirs of the Union's Three Great Civil War Generals David Widger

When my parents thought me at school, I was playing "hookey" with other boys, running about the river, kicking foot-ball, playing "shinny on your own side," and having a fight nearly every day.

Forty Years a Gambler on the Mississippi George H. Devol

He played "hookey" all day long, and no truant officer disturbed him, or dragged him off to school.

Little Journey to Puerto Rico : for Intermediate and Upper Grades For Intermediate and Upper Grades Marian M. George

You went to the same school; played "hookey" together; bathed in the creek together.

The Common Sense of Socialism A Series of Letters Addressed to Jonathan Edwards, of Pittsburg John Spargo 1921

The boys at Lynn, Mass., built a very substantial house in the trees, and the truant officer claimed that the lads hid away there so that they could play "hookey" from school; but if this is true, and there seems to be some doubt about it, it must be remembered that the fault was probably with

Shelters, Shacks and Shanties Daniel Carter Beard 1895

After boarding a train and traveling for twenty-four hours toward the South and sunshine, he begins to lose a little the feeling that he is playing "hookey" and is liable to be dragged home and birched.

Keeping Fit All the Way Walter Camp 1892

But the afternoon came, and the wild boy was still in the water, too deeply interested in the navigation of a plank to realize that he was playing "hookey" and risking its shady consequences.

The Story of Paul Boyton Voyages on All the Great Rivers of the World Paul Boyton 1881