hooky

noun

ˈhu̇-kē 

variants or less commonly hookey

Phrases

play hooky or less commonly play hookey

US, informal

: to be away from school without permission

Out on the playground, a boy from another homeroom cavorted around on a dirt bike, doing wheelies. He was playing hooky, but evidently couldn't stay away.

—Tracy Kidder

When he was a small child [Babe] Ruth was a holy terror. He had incredible energy, was relentlessly active and was always in trouble. He played hooky from school. He stole fruits and vegetables from stores, threw them at truck-drivers and ran and hid from the police.

—Robert W. Creamer

He [Tom Sawyer] moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging, along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before, with the air of one whose heart was busy with heavier woes and wholly dead to trifles.

—Mark Twain

also : to be away from work or similar duties in a way likened to a child skipping school

Hawkins is a tanned, muscular man in his 40s who's playing hooky today from his job as a printer's ink chemist.

—Doug Stewart

Most New Yorkers were at work last Tuesday while the official ceremony was going on—and many of those who played hooky chose to go to the ticker-tape parade for the world champion New York Mets.

—David Gates

… in 1948 I once played hookey from my radio writing job with Edgar Bergen to play in the Santa Monica Open.

—Arthur Marx

Examples of hooky in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The title track of the second Jackson 5 album continued their endearing formula of a hooky chorus paired with Jackson’s boyishly pure vocals. —Melissa Ruggieri, USA Today, 24 Apr. 2026

Bini’s music is broadly appealing, undeniably lovestruck and hooky. —Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2026

Directed by John Hughes, the movie stars Matthew Broderick in the titular role of a high school slacker who plays hooky with his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara). —Entertainment Weekly, 4 Apr. 2026

The stands were packed with observant Jews wearing yarmulkes and tzitzit, children playing hooky from Hebrew school and New Yorkers who flew south for one of the biggest basketball games in Yeshiva University history. —Greg Bluestein, AJC.com, 14 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

probably from slang hook, hook it to make off

First Known Use

1842, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for hooky

• bookie
• cookie
• rookie

Kids Definition

hooky

noun

variants also hookey

ˈhu̇k-ē 

plural hookies or hookeys

: truant

play hooky