mooch
/muːtʃ
/verb informal
1 [no object] (mooch about/around) British Loiter in a bored or listless manner: he just mooched about his bedsit...
- So I'm going to lay in bed late, then probably head over to Brighton to mooch about the shops.
- No, they can't tell me when he'll show up - so I have to mooch about and wait.
- The meetings were kept mercifully short, and were followed by an extensive buffet, and there was plenty of free time for mooching around and doing our own stuff.
2 [with object] North American Ask for or obtain (something) without paying for it: a bunch of your friends will show up, mooching food [no object]: I’m mooching off you all the time...
- Did you just figure you could mooch food off of me as well?
- I dropped by Shay's apartment to mooch food.
- They are nice in every way, except for the fact that they always try to mooch food from us.
noun
1 [in singular] British An instance of loitering in a bored or listless manner.This morning started at a fairly leisurely pace with a mini-lie in for our last morning away, then coffee and eventually a mooch around the shops....
- Then we went to the bookshop for a mooch, and then we had dinner.
- After having a mooch around whilst chatting to a mixture of students who were on the course, it became clear that although being a gifted artist is helpful, the thought and understanding behind their work was most important.
2North American A beggar or scrounger.For some reason society continues to coddle these mooches, and thus it is considered noble to take part in giving the needy what they want....
- He brought an empty bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag to a party so he wouldn't appear a mooch.
- For starters, the meathead was very much both a mooch and much worse—an ingrate.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'to hoard'): probably from Old French muchier (Anglo-Norman muscher) 'hide, skulk': compare with mitch. Current senses date from the mid 19th century.