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mooch

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mooch¹

  • /ˈmuːt͡ʃ/
  • [ˈmʊu̯t͡ʃ]

Rhymes with -uːtʃ

Where it comes from

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.

verb mooches · mooching · mooched · mouch

  1. UK, colloquial To wander around aimlessly, often causing irritation to others. Near-synonyms: loiter, roam
  2. colloquial To beg, cadge, or sponge; to exploit or take advantage of others for personal gain. I managed to mooch my way up the journalistic ladder to the next, more impressive level of “Interviewer”.

    Similar: leech, beg, blag, bum, cadge, mooch, mump, scrounge, scunge, sponge, tap, wheedle

  3. UK, colloquial, transitive To steal or filch. I'm tired of driving you all over and sick of you living in my house, mooching my food.

    Similar: steal, abduct, abstract, appropriate, bag, bandit, bash and grab, bone, boost, burgle, burglarize, borrow

noun mooches · mouch

  1. UK, colloquial An aimless stroll. Jack wouldn't be arriving for another ten minutes, so I had a mooch around the garden.
  2. colloquial One who mooches; a moocher. "No! I'm sick of you being a mooch, bumming off me all the time! I'm going to London for a few days."

    Similar: bloodsucker, bludger, bummer, freeloader, free rider, gadfly, leech, mooch, moocher, parasite, scrounge, scrounger

mooch²

  • /ˈmuːt͡ʃ/
  • [ˈmʊu̯t͡ʃ]

Rhymes with -uːtʃ

determiner

  1. colloquial, pronunciation spelling Pronunciation spelling of much

mooch³

  • /ˈmuːt͡ʃ/
  • [ˈmʊu̯t͡ʃ]

Rhymes with -uːtʃ

Where it comes from

Clipping of Scaramucci.

noun mooches

  1. US, colloquial, humorous, slang Synonym of Scaramucci (“unit of time”). If we take Scaramucci’s 10-day figure to be the standard of measurement — one “mooch” — then Pruitt survived an amazing 50.3 mooches, even while enduring more than a dozen scandals, any one of which would have doomed a lesser man.

    Similar: Scaramucci

Translations

Every language

verb wander around aimlessly

Portuguêszanzar
Françaiserrer
Deutschherumlungern
Русскийслоня́ться slonjátʹsja

verb beg, cadge, or sponge; to exploit or take advantage of others for personal gain

Deutschschnorren
Русскийпопроша́йничать poprošájničatʹ, побира́ться pobirátʹsja

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Cite this
MLA

"mooch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mooch. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

mooch. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mooch

Chicago

"mooch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mooch.

BibTeX
@misc{mooch_2026,
  title = {mooch},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mooch},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}