mitch

Meanings

1. To pilfer; filch; steal.
2. To shrink or retire from view; lurk out of sight; skulk.
3. To be absent from (school) without a valid excuse; to play truant, to skive off.
4. To grumble secretly.
5. To pretend poverty.

1. A diminutive of the male given name Mitchell.

Etymology

From Middle English mychen, müchen (“to rob, steal, pilfer”), from Old English *myċċan (“to steal”), from Proto-West Germanic *mukkjan, from Proto-Germanic *mukjaną (“to waylay, ambush, hide, rob”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mūg-, *(s)mewg- (“swindler, thief”). Cognate with Scots mich, myche (“to steal”), Saterland Frisian mogeln (“to act secretively and deceitfully”), Dutch mokkelen (“to flatter”), Alemannic German mauchen (“to nibble secretively”), German mogeln (“to cheat”), German meucheln (“to assassinate”), Norwegian i mugg (“in secret, secretly”), Latin muger (“cheater”). Related to mooch.