From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtruanttru‧ant /ˈtruːənt/ noun [countable] 1 SESa student who stays away from school without permission persistent truants2 → play truant —truant verb [intransitive] —truant adjective American English Nick was truant seven days this month.
Examples from the Corpus
truant• He dropped out of the eighth grade, but before that he was a truant of long standing.• They are, according to recent research, bringing up the next generation of offenders, truants, divorcees and generally inadequate people.• Home visiting is an expensive but helpful alternative for persistent truants.• About half in each case were categorised by their headteachers as casual or persistent truants.• Persistent truants, those truanting for weeks at a time, were seen as posing intractable problems for schools.• Nadine had rung Matthew several times recently-and always at school-to say that Rory was playing truant.• Or had the truants simply outgrown school, but were ready for the world of work?• The truants are questioned by education officers, and often their parents too.Origin truant (1300-1400) Old French “wanderer” 