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Glite Dictionary
to play the wag

to play the wag

9.9
Pretend to be ill to avoid going to work or school
  • idiom
  • UK
translation icon : fingir estar enfermo
  • Whenever there was a test, Tom would play the wag and not show up to class.

Examples

  • She was caught trying to play the wag instead of going to her morning lecture.

  • Don't play the wag just to avoid your homework!

  • It's tempting to play the wag when the weather is beautiful outside.

  • He always plays the wag when there's a test.

  • John decided to play the wag to skip his math class because it was so boring.

  • It's not a good idea to play the wag on test days; your grades will suffer.

  • When she wanted to avoid the meeting, Maria would often play the wag and call in sick.

Synonyms

to play hooky
vsto play the wag
  • Informal
20 7.7

To stay away from school or work without permission

involves pretending illness specifically to avoid school responsibilities
to malinger
vsto play the wag
  • Formal
1 8.9

To pretend to be ill or hurt to avoid work

is mainly used for avoiding school by pretending to be ill
to goldbrick
vsto play the wag
  • Archaic
1 9.5

To avoid work by pretending to be busy

is more about feigning absence to escape school duties
to scrimshank
vsto play the wag
  • Archaic
9.9

To avoid work or duties by pretending to be sick

is used more for missing school through feigned illness

How Deceptive

to malinger
  • Formal
1 8.9
to play the wag
  • UK
9.9
to feign
40 7.2

Surface Forms

play the wag infinitive
played the wag past
played the wag past participle
playing the wag present participle
plays the wag third person singular

Morphology

play + the + wag

Although 'play' can mean 'to act or pretend', the component 'wag' is slang/dated and does not transparently encode 'truant' or 'avoiding duties', so a B1 learner who only knows the literal constituents would not reliably infer the idiomatic meaning. The expression is idiomatic and culture-specific rather than compositional, making the overall sense unpredictable from the parts.

Etymology

Play the wag may come from old slang where a wag was a person who avoided work or skipped school. To play that person was to pretend to be ill or away to avoid work, so today it means 'to stay away from work or school'.