mooch

Peut-être de l’ancien français mucher (« musser », « cacher »).

Ou par dérivation du sens argotique de mouche (mouchard = délateur, informateur).

mooch

1. (Intransitif) Traînailler, déambuler, flâner.
   • What he liked most was to […] stay there, if it pleased him, for two or three days at a time, doing nothing, mooching. (Daphne du Maurier, The Apple Tree)
   • All the inhabitants of Hampton and Moulsey dress themselves up in boating costume, and come and mooch round the lock with their dogs, and flirt, and smoke, and watch the boats; and, altogether, what with the caps and jackets of the men, the pretty coloured dresses of the women, the excited dogs, the moving boats, the white sails, the pleasant landscape, and the sparkling water, it is one of the gayest sights I know of near this dull old London town. — (Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat, VII, 1889)
2. (États-Unis) (Transitif) Taper (au sens de emprunter), soutirer.
3. (États-Unis) (Transitif) Piquer (au sens de voler).

• mooch about — traînailler
• mooch around — traînailler

• \muːtʃ\
• États-Unis  : écouter « mooch [Prononciation ?] »