mooch
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /muːt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -uːtʃ
Forms: form: mooches
form: mooching
form: mooched
form: mooched
form: mouch
Etymology: From Middle English moochen, mouchen (“to pretend poverty”), from Old French muchier, mucier, mucer (“to skulk, hide, conceal”), from Frankish *mukkjan (“to hide, conceal oneself”), from Proto-Germanic *mukjaną, *mūkōną (“to hide, ambush”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mūg-, *(s)mewgʰ- (“swindler, thief”).
Cognate with Old High German mūhhōn (“to store, cache, plunder”), Middle High German muchen, mucken (“to hide, stash”), Middle English müchen, michen (“to rob, steal, pilfer”). More at mitch.
Alternate etymology derives mooch from Middle English mucchen (“to hoard, be stingy”, literally “to hide coins in one's nightcap”), from Middle English mucche (“nightcap”), from Middle Dutch mutse (“cap, nightcap”), from Medieval Latin almucia (“nightcap”), of unknown origin, possibly Arabic. More at mutch, amice.
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonyms: loiter, roam
text: These chaps that mooch about, as Hyde was doing, pick up all sorts of odds and ends. He may have pinched them from a chemist’s shop.
ref: 1922, J. S. Fletcher, The Middle of Things, New York: A. Knopf, page 161:
text: You have to be alone to mooch about properly. Other people will just get in the way and be all energetic about things. So wait until they've gone, make a cup of tea and then let the mooching commence.
ref: 2007 August 10, Guy Browning, “How to … mooch about”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
text: With 79 minutes gone, the most celebrated team of the modern age had been reduced to bunch of mooching, stumbling yellow-shirted spectators.
ref: 2019 May 8, Barney Ronay, “Liverpool’s waves of red fury and recklessness end in joyous bedlam”, in The Guardian:
text: A handful of camera crews mooched around the entrance to the Giorgio Cini foundation, where a pair of tight-lipped but polite individuals sat before monitors under a gazebo and politely fended off requests for information.
ref: 2025 June 27, Sam Jones, “Till Jeff us do part: divisive, star-studded Bezos wedding hits full swing in Venice”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
glosses: To wander around aimlessly, often causing irritation to others.
examples: text: I managed to mooch my way up the journalistic ladder to the next, more impressive level of “Interviewer”.
ref: 1990, Michael L. Frankel & friends, Gently with the Tides, Washington (DC): Center for Marine Conservation, →ISBN, page 26:
text: Mr. Prince responded on Twitter: “Phony fraud photographers keep mooching me. Why? I changed the game,” he wrote on Wednesday. His Instagram account, which previously had over 70,000 followers, is currently disabled.
ref: 2017 July 20, Andrew R. Chow, quoting Richard Prince, “Copyright Case Over Richard Prince Instagram Show to Go Forward”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
synonyms: word: leech#Verb
word: beg
word: blag
word: bum
word: cadge
word: leech
word: mooch
word: scrounge
word: sponge
word: tap
word: wheedle
glosses: To beg, cadge, or sponge; to exploit or take advantage of others for personal gain.
examples: text: I'm tired of driving you all over and sick of you living in my house, mooching my food.
ref: 2019, Susan Alice Bickford, Dread of Winter:
synonyms: word: steal
word: abduct
word: abstract
word: appropriate
word: bag
word: bandit
word: bash and grab
word: bone
word: boost
word: burgle
word: burglarize
word: borrow
word: cheat
word: chore
word: commandeer
word: confiscate
word: convert
word: cop
word: cozen
word: crib
word: embezzle
word: filch
word: fleece
word: flog
word: gaffle
word: gilravage
word: half-inch
word: heave
word: heist
word: jack
word: kidnap
word: knock off
word: kipe
word: kyper
word: liberate
word: lift
word: loot
word: make off with
word: mill
word: misappropriate
word: mooch
word: moonlight requisition
word: nick
word: nip
word: own
word: peculate
word: pickpocket
word: pilfer
word: pinch
word: pillage
word: pirate
word: plunder
word: poach
word: pocket
word: prig
word: purloin
word: raid
word: relieve
word: rape
word: ransack
word: reave
word: rip
word: rip off
word: rob
word: run off with
word: snag
word: snatch
word: sniggle
word: snitch
word: swindle
word: swipe
word: thieve
word: walk off with
glosses: To steal or filch.
Derived terms: moocher
mooch off