Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Truant \Tru"ant\, v. i. [Cf. F. truander.]
   To idle away time; to loiter, or wander; to play the truant.
   --Shak.

         By this means they lost their time and truanted on the
         fundamental grounds of saving knowledge. --Lowell.

Truant \Tru"ant\, v. t.
   To idle away; to waste. [R.]

         I dare not be the author Of truanting the time. --Ford.

Truant \Tru"ant\, n. [F. truand, OF. truant, a vagrant, beggar;
   of Celtic origin; cf. W. tru, truan, wretched, miserable,
   truan a wretch, Ir. trogha miserable, Gael. truaghan a poor,
   distressed, or wretched creature, truagh wretched.]
   One who stays away from business or any duty; especially, one
   who stays out of school without leave; an idler; a loiterer;
   a shirk. --Dryden.

         I have a truant been to chivalry.        --Shak.

   {To play truant}, to stray away; to loiter; especially, to
      stay out of school without leave. --Sir T. Browne

Truant \Tru"ant\, a.
   Wandering from business or duty; loitering; idle, and
   shirking duty; as, a truant boy.

         While truant Jove, in infant pride, Played barefoot on
         Olympus' side.                           --Trumbull.

Source : WordNet®

truant
     adj : absent without permission; "truant schoolboys"; "the soldier
           was AWOL for almost a week" [syn: {awol}]
     n 1: one who is absent from school without permission [syn: {hooky
          player}]
     2: someone who shirks duty [syn: {no-show}, {nonattender}]