throw a sickie
verb1
Australia, New Zealand, UK, Slang To take a day off from work for ill health (either real or feigned).
- Hogie said, “Listen, I′m throwing a sickie. I don′t need to be there until opening day tomorrow. The staff don′t arrive till then anyway so as long as I'm in early I can′t see a problem.”1997, Nicholas Blincoe, Jello Salad, page 49:
- 2005, Callum G. Brown, The Unconverted and the Conversion, Jan N. Bremmer, Wout J. van Bekkum, Arie L. Molendijk (editors), Paradigms, Poetics, and Politics of Conversion: Gender Relations in the Salvation Narrative in Britain: 1800-1960, page 190, It is like throwing a ‘sickie’ in Britain today — you can sign-off work on your own say-so for sick benefit for up to five days.
1 more example
- Do not ‘throw a sickie’ just because things get tough. Experience shows that running away from your problems will not solve anything.2011, Gererd Dixie, The Ultimate Teaching Manual: A Route to Success for Beginning Teachers, page 187:
- Synonyms
- pull a sickie