1. [n]  someone who shirks duty
2. [n]  one who is absent from school without permission
3. [adj]  absent without permission; "truant schoolboys"; "the soldier was AWOL for almost a week"

Truant
truANT

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1. \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
   

2. \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.
   

3. \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.
   

4. \Tru"ant\, v. t.
   To idle away; to waste. [R.]
         I dare not be the author Of truanting the time. --Ford.