truant officer

noun

: a person employed by a public-school system to investigate the continued absences of pupils

called also attendance officer, truancy officer

Examples of truant officer in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Cities often employed truant officers, who roamed the streets searching for children to corral, and repeat offenders risked being brought to juvenile court. Alec MacGillis, The New Yorker, 8 Jan. 2024 The law was enforced by agents of the school committee — truant officers — with fines of up to $5 per week. Alec MacGillis, ProPublica, 8 Jan. 2024 The law was enforced by agents of the school committee—truant officers—with fines of up to five dollars per week. Alec MacGillis, The New Yorker, 8 Jan. 2024 There is fleet white, the easily repairable, appliancelike white of chicken inspectors and truant officers. Dan Neil, WSJ, 7 Feb. 2020 Bonnie’s father, Stan Colwell, had been a tough truant officer before being promoted to principal at a second-chance high school. Tribune News Service, oregonlive.com, 22 June 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'truant officer.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1868, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of truant officer was in 1868

Dictionary Entries Near truant officer

Cite this Entry

“Truant officer.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/truant%20officer. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

truant officer

noun
: a school officer whose duty is to investigate the continued absences of students
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