TO PLAY THE CHARLEY-WAG (school slang).—1.  To absent oneself from school without leave; to play truant. Variants are TO MOUCH; TO WAG; Fr., tailler or caler l’école; Spanish, hacer novillos, and andar à la tuna.

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  1876.  C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 57. Nothing could be done with him at school … Joe being, in spite of all entreaties, the greatest rapscallion and ringleader of all mischief, and at all times readier TO PLAY THE ‘CHARLEY WAG’ than to be the first in any prominent position in his class or form.

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  2.  (common).—To disappear [figurative].

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  1887.  W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Straight Tip to all Cross Coves.

          It’s up the spout and CHARLEY-WAG
With wipes and tickers and what not.
  Until the squeezer nips your scrag,
Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

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