Examples of truant in a Sentence
Devan Coggan, EW.com, 21 Mar. 2023
Others are battling substance abuse or pornography/promiscuity addictions, are frequent truants, or need help dealing with low self-esteem or social rejection.
—Judith Segaloff, Sun Sentinel, 23 Feb. 2023
The iconic '80s movie starred Matthew Broderick as the titular truant who skipped school alongside pals Cameron (Alan Ruck) and Sloane (Mia Sara), resulting in all kinds of comedic shenanigans, and now a new film will focus on two minor characters and their own misadventures.
—Philip Ellis, Men's Health, 20 Aug. 2022
And under California law, the letter reads, that means his son is considered a truant.
—Harmeet Kaur, CNN, 22 Oct. 2020
The film follows Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a 12-year-old truant causing trouble on the streets of Paris.
—Gabe Cohn, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2020
In the House of Representatives, East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell was the top truant of the presidential contenders, missing 39.7 percent of votes this year.
—Casey Tolan, The Mercury News, 18 Aug. 2019
Ten were booked as runaways five as truants and one turned out to be an AWOL Marine from Camp Pendleton.
—Johnny Miller — Jack Viets, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 May 2018
In Park Hill School District about 150 students who observed the walkout were marked truant.
—Mará Rose Williams, kansascity, 20 Mar. 2018
Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, 26 May 2022
Otherwise, he will be considered truant.
—Lois K. Solomon, sun-sentinel.com, 4 Aug. 2020
The laws include greater punishments for crimes committed in ghettos, and the potential to halt social support for various infractions such as having children who are truant or don’t attend external child care for a certain number of hours in a week.
—Lenora Chu, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 June 2021
Critics point to her record of presiding over the arrests of parents — notably, mothers, according to HuffPost and The Orange County Register — of mostly Black truant students during her years as San Francisco's district attorney and California's attorney general.
—NBC News, 22 Sep. 2020
Because he’s been truant four times this year.
—The Denver Post: Crisis Point, 14 Jan. 2020
There’s a scene where the truant middle-schoolers find a brick of white that’ll have parents in the audience clutching their pearls.
—Craig D. Lindsey, Chron, 23 Feb. 2023
To be sure, the overwhelming majority of truant students do not become school shooters.
—Dallas News, 23 June 2022
Lawmakers learned recently that the Uvalde shooter was often truant.
—Dallas News, 11 July 2022
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'truant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Noun
Middle English, vagabond, idler, from Anglo-French, of Celtic origin; akin to Old Irish trógán wretch, trúag wretched
Noun
14th century, in the meaning defined above
Adjective
1561, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Verb
1580, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing truant
Dictionary Entries Near truant
Cite this Entry
“Truant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truant. Accessed 29 Sep. 2023.
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More from Merriam-Webster on truant
Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for truant
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Britannica English: Translation of truant for Arabic Speakers
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