Definition of "hookey" [hook•ey]

• Truancy, especially from school. (noun)

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• "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."
• "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."
• "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."