schoolboyn.
/ˈskuːlbɔɪ/, U.S. /ˈskulˌbɔɪ/ A boy attending or belonging to a school. Also allusively: a person likened to a schoolboy in immaturity, lack of judgement, etc.overgrown schoolboy: see the first element.
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society > education > learning > learner > one attending school > [noun] > schoolboy
schoolboy1579
1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 65 These Thebans here doe like the schoole boyes, which bragge and reioyce when they haue a litle beaten their master.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) v. i. 61 A peeuish School-boy, worthles of such Honor. View more context for this quotation
1658 E. Phillips New World Eng. Words Palmer, a certain instrument wherewith school-boys are struck on the palms of their hands.
1671 T. Hobbes Considerations Wallis his Answer 2 in 3 Papers This arguing of Infinites is but the ambition of School-boyes.
1701 Post Man & Hist. Acct. 1 Apr. 1/1 There are in this City [sc. Rome]..39536 Houses and Families, the Pope,..1947 Nuns, 1133 Schoolboys, [etc.].
1749 S. Fielding Governess 33 One Day the poor little Creature followed me to the Door; when a Parcel of School-boys coming by, one..ran away with her.
1782 W. Cowper Retirement in Poems 725 Friends, not adopted, with a schoolboy's haste, But chosen with a nice discerning taste.
1826 Monthly Rev. Apr. 400 Such works are only adapted for the use of school-boys, and undeserving of the serious perusal of university-bred full-grown men.
1853 G. Johnston Terra Lindisfarnensis I. 96 [Elder] well known to every schoolboy..,who fabricates his pop-gun from its pithy branches.
1876 C. M. Davies Unorthodox London (rev. ed.) 312 The three schoolboys..amused themselves with shooting light missiles into the young ladies' faces.
1933 E. O'Neill Days without End i. 33 They'd turned naughty schoolboys and were throwing spitballs at Almighty God.
1961 Times 14 Mar. 7/3 There are no more sticky buns or cream doughnuts for hungry schoolboys at March Grammar School.
2008 Daily Tel. 1 Feb. 11/1 Two police community support officers locked themselves in a room to hide from an aggressive schoolboy.
Phrases
every schoolboy knows: used to refer to an item of factual information that is supposed to be generally known (sometimes used humorously with reference to obscure or specialized information).
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1602 N. Breton Olde Mad-cappes New Gally-mawfrey sig. C4 But euerie Schole-boy knowes his Interiection, And had by heart a better part of speech.]
1654 Bp. J. Taylor Real Presence 80 Every Schole-boy knows it.
1795 T. Pownall Considerations Scarcity & High Prices of Bread-corn & Bread Pref. p. vi Every school-boy knows that the nut will not shell until it is a brown-sheller.
1840 T. B. Macaulay in Edinb. Rev. Jan. 295 Every schoolboy knows who imprisoned Montezuma, and who strangled Atahualpa.
1872 Lancet 27 July 113/2 Every schoolboy knows that if he visit a nest too often, or disturb it in any way, the old birds will desert their little ones.
1900 Cornhill Mag. Sept. 382 The meal which is most characteristic of Yorkshire, as every schoolboy knows, is the high tea.
1963 New Scientist 26 Sept. 658/2 Every schoolboy knows that one sphere can be surrounded by up to twelve others of equal size, so the function g (r) rises steeply to a maximum..then oscillates a few times.
1995 J. M. Kolkey Germany on March ii. 28 As every schoolboy knows, the joint Austro-Prussian military invasion of France was halted short of Paris at a battle that became known as the Miracle of Valmy.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive with the sense ‘characteristic of a schoolboy’, ‘of a schoolboy or schoolboys’, as schoolboy slang, schoolboy term, schoolboy trick, schoolboy way, etc.
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1724 E. Clark Let. 18 Nov. in J. Owens Plain Papers (1879) 177 If you hereafter continue that affected and school-boy way of writing, and to murder the language in such a manner, you will be discharged for a fool.
a1791 F. Grose Olio (1796) 147 My Lord jesting with Harvest on their school-boy tricks.
1829 W. P. Scargill Rank & Talent I. 254 Stating his case clearly..without any of that school-boy slang.
1849 H. Mayo On Truths Pop. Superstit. (1851) 188 I went over preliminarily my schoolboy recollections.
1885 Home Chimes 26 Sept. 266/2 Keith amused her with his shy rough schoolboy ways and strange enthusiasm.
a1908 H. C. Hart MS Coll. Ulster Words in M. Traynor Eng. Dial. Donegal (1953) 191/2 Mug, one who applies closely to his books; a schoolboy term.
1962 J. P. Crespelle Fauves 39 A certain schoolboy pretentiousness which came out in a liking for..nicknames.
1980 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 13 July iv. 20 [They] said they meant no harm, that it was all a schoolboy prank.
2009 Canberra Times (Nexis) 3 Aug. a14 The old schoolboy trick of sliding a pin beneath the epidermis..of one's palms without..causing pain or drawing blood.
b. attributive, designating a very basic or foolish mistake, such as might be made by a schoolboy, as schoolboy blunder, schoolboy mistake, etc. See also schoolboy error n., schoolboy howler n. at Compounds 3.
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1821 London Mag. Oct. 400/1 Any garreteering wight..might have avoided a rap on the knuckles for such school-boy slips as these.
1833 Fraser's Mag. Feb. 191/2 In the second page he falls into the schoolboy mistake with respect to the military skill of the ancient Greeks.
1838 Musical World 25 Oct. 120 Successive 5ths and 8ths, together with false progressions..: in fact, schoolboy blunders from first to last.
1917 T. R. Glover From Pericles to Philip vii. 224 Plutarch could make a schoolboy blunder with a Latin preposition.
1940 Stud. in Philol. 37 91 Among the schoolboy mistakes, repetition, that bane of undergraduate writing, troubled Lamb more than one might have suspected.
1999 Sunday Sport 3 Oct. 43/1 Wilkinson's boot made it 20–7 with two more kicks but then Dawson went from hero to zero with a schoolboy blunder.
C2. Appositive, as schoolboy friend, schoolboy genius, schoolboy midshipman, schoolboy son, etc.
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1751 Verses occasioned by Pope's Wks. 21 The school-boy-genius proud appears, And thinks his Work outshines the Spheres.
1770 T. Chatterton Let. 26 Apr. in Compl. Wks. (1971) I. 511 An old mercantile genius whose school-boy son had a great deal of wit.
1798 R. Polwhele Infl. Local Attachm. 53 Pondering on such a home, our schoolboy friends With expectations flusht anew, we meet.
1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. xviii. 70 Or school-boy Midshipman that..Strains his shrill pipe as good or ill betides.
1882 D. B. W. Sladen Frithjof & Ingeborg 139 When I look upon her face, Making Dick a schoolboy Cid, Rubbing up the feats he did.
1904 Sunset Mag. Mar. 426/1 This relation of the most tragic incident of his life of perilous service from a schoolboy midshipman..to that of a commander in the navy of the United States.
1922 A. Jekyll Kitchen Ess. 33 What a schoolboy friend..alluded to as ‘that practice introduced by the Greeks of a man having only one wife which is called Monotony.’
1973 M. Barsi-Greene I, Prince Tudor, wrote Shakespeare 39 The play was more apt to have been written by a fun-loving schoolboy genius..such as the fourteen-year-old Francis Bacon.
2010 Sunday Times (Nexis) 5 Dec. (Culture section) 33 [His] book..about the schoolboy son of a lavatory-paper magnate who learns that you can't buy friendship.
C3.
schoolboy code n. = schoolboy code of honour n.
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1844 Morning Chron. 3 June The propriety of fagging and flogging,..the beauties of bullying, all which laws of the schoolboy code Doctor Arnold was disposed to maintain.
1977 P. G. Winslow Witch Hill Murder ii. xviii. 248 His blue gaze fell on Capricorn expecting him to understand and accept his schoolboy code.
1999 C. Ramet K. Follett iv. 49 David remains rooted to an archaic schoolboy code of conduct regarding fair play..and heroism.
schoolboy code of honour n. a code of honour governing the behaviour of schoolboys, such as not telling tales, etc.; (more generally) a moral code that is simplistic or rigid.
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1842 New Monthly Mag. 66 60 Certain lies are not only permitted, but enjoined by the whole authority of the schoolboy code of honour, in the intercourse between scholars and their teachers.
1874 C. M. Yonge Lady Hester vii. 169 The boy endured all the rage and scorn that a threat so contrary to all schoolboy codes of honour..might deserve.
1903 School Jrnl. 5 Sept. 194/2 The chief maxim of the recognized schoolboy code of honour—that one boy must not tell anything against another.
1999 B. S. Ash Writing in Between ii. iii. 79 [Lord] Jim..the desperate martyr to a schoolboy code of honor.
schoolboy crush n. a brief but intense infatuation held by, or as if by, a schoolboy.
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1927 Laredo (Texas) Daily Times 31 Mar. 7/3 The young forest ranger, who has a regular schoolboy crush on Monica.
1987 G. Turner Sea & Summer 135 Schoolboy crushes wear off in time.
2001 Heat 27 Oct. 52/2 He admits to having a schoolboy crush on Farrah Fawcett.
schoolboy days n. time spent as a schoolboy.
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1770 R. Griffith & E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances V. dcxxxiii. 168 It was in such a Synonima, that I had formerly passed all my School-boy Days.
1798 R. Southey Autumn 18 I call to mind The school-boy days.
1872 H. Holland Recoll. Past Life vii. 187 His..hatred for Napoleon..dated..even from their school-boy days at Ajaccio.
1994 Evening Standard (Nexis) 15 Aug. 11 In my schoolboy days, we would revel in headlines in comics such as Dracula meets Frankenstein or Wolfman meets The Hulk.
schoolboy English n. the style of English used by schoolboys, esp. as being basic, coarse, literal, etc.; (also in later use) English as learned by a schoolboy as a second language, elementary English.
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1769 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 122/2 The many exceptionable things I could point out in this translation, where the most wretched school-boy English disgraces an elegant work.
1835 J. Romilly Diary 6 July in Cambridge Diary (1967) 82 P. George of Camb. delighted me by his returning thanks, because it was good simple schoolboy English.
1893 Jrnl. Educ. 15 147/1 A useful lesson in style..converting..a brilliant piece of Ruskin into the baldest schoolboy English.
1999 Washington Post (Nexis) 26 Apr. a14 A young recruit, eager to try his schoolboy English, leaned over with a..cheery ‘Hello! Welcome to Albania! How do you do?’
2000 C. Thomas Novel Stud. 7 Read the first chapter aloud. This will help students hear the 1950s schoolboy English used in the novel.
schoolboy error n. a very basic or foolish mistake; cf. Compounds 1b.
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1858 Eclectic Med. Jrnl. Dec. 541/2 The schoolboy error of using the singular verb ‘renders’.
1920 Stevens Point (Wisconsin) Daily Jrnl. 7 Oct. 1/1 Cleveland's one run was directly due to a ‘schoolboy error’.
2003 R. Herring Talking Cock 133 He forgot to fill them with jelly. A schoolboy error.
schoolboy French n. French as learned at school by a schoolboy, esp. when basic or incorrect; cf. school French n. at school n.1 Compounds 5a.
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1864 E. Dawbarn Recreation & Usefulness iii. 21 Wearied with expending his stock of school boy French upon the waiter.., he..said impatiently, in English, ‘I wish the fellow would send the chambermaid.’
1955 E. Blishen Roaring Boys iii. 158 He delighted in mimicking my schoolboy French.
2010 Times (Nexis) 12 May 20 When I go on holiday I like to come back with a word or two to add to my schoolboy French.
schoolboy handwriting n. handwriting characteristic of a schoolboy; handwriting of a basic style as learned at school.
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1837 Atlas (Boston) 7 July Boys received at this School will be fitted for the Counting House in the course of a few weeks, and in place of stiff, set, schoolboy handwriting, will be taught a free, off hand, business style, both rapid and intelligible.
1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) xxx. 260 In his big school-boy handwriting.
1995 Sunday Mail (Nexis) 5 Feb. 7 A 13-year-old from Aberdeen even completed the form in his own schoolboy handwriting.
schoolboy honour n. honour characteristic of a schoolboy; moral principles that are simplistic, rigid, etc.; cf. schoolboy code of honour n.
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1838 J. Kenyon Poems 50 Rufus... Scorner of each rule ! Not held quite ‘raff’, nor quite without a flaw, If tried by school-boy honour's nicer law.
1876 C. M. Yonge Womankind xviii. 138 To keep up a standard of real honour, above schoolboy honour, is most needful.
1970 P. Y. Carter Mr. Campion's Falcon xxii. 166 He has a sense of schoolboy honour, a perfectly straightforward code.
2000 Independent (Nexis) 23 July 26 We need doctors who put patients first and blow the whistle loud... The last thing patients need is schoolboy honour.
schoolboy howler n. a glaring or amusing mistake made by a schoolchild, esp. in answer to an examination question (cf. howler n. 3); (in extended use) any very basic or foolish error; = schoolboy error n.
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1886 Englische Studien 9 327 Some time-honoured schoolboy ‘howlers’ from Latin.
1923 N.Y. Times 14 Oct. viii. 6/1 It..abounds in schoolboy ‘howlers’ in harmony, in four-part writing.
1971 Canad. Math. Bull. Dec. 609 One recalls the school-boy howler which defines English idiom as the language of English idiots.
2005 Times 22 Mar. 78/1 A weekend of schoolboy howlers perpetrated by the most expensive, and lavishly rewarded, No.1s [i.e. goalkeepers] in the world.
schoolboy humour n. humour characteristic of a schoolboy; puerile humour.
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1809 Eclectic Rev. Aug. 737 There is also a disgusting account of Zobbadel, a female slave, and a song of school-boy humour addressed to her.
1926 W. E. Heitland After Many Years 84 On the last Sunday of the Half it became the custom to sing ‘Brief life is here our portion’, a mild concession to schoolboy humour.
2003 Guardian 8 Apr. ii. 15/4 Smelly socks (more..correctly known as bromihidrosis) are a staple of schoolboy humour.
schoolboy rule n. a rule learnt as a schoolboy; (also) an elementary or basic rule or principle (of a particular subject or discipline).
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1687 E. Settle Refl. Dryden's Plays 6 This great pretender to Learning has not wit enough to make an Allegory, but violates the common School-boy Rules of sence.
1700 E. Ward Journey to Hell 7 He more learn'd in School-Boy Rules repairs To Leyden, where he's taught to stand the Bears.
1826 Orient Herald & Jrnl. Gen. Lit. 8 253 As to..strengthening the natural defences..by the application of the commonest schoolboy rules of art, the thought seldom enters an officer's head.
1854 Proc. Lit. & Philos. Soc. Liverpool 8 125 It is a schoolboy rule that two negatives make an affirmative.
1994 M. R. Katz tr. I. Turgenev Fathers & Sons 37 We're genuine Russians, and at the same time, we're grandees who're allowed to ignore schoolboy rules of grammar.
schoolboy tale n. (a) a tale or account told by a schoolboy, esp. one that makes wildly exaggerated claims purported to be true; (b) a story that appeals to or concerns a schoolboy or schoolboys.
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1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 523. ¶2 A parcel of School-Boy Tales.
1828 London Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 1 227 Dr. Burrows has had the story second-hand, and we would..remind him..of the schoolboy tale of the gentleman who vomited three black crows.
1893 Newberry House Mag. Dec. 742 We never do like the schoolboy tales written by ladies, because they are not like the schools or the schoolboys we have known.
1914 Ohio Educ. Monthly Oct. 582 Much gossip flew from farm to farm..But schoolboy tales could do more harm When people seldom met.
2002 Independent (Nexis) 22 Feb. 1 It was a schoolboy tale of derring-do.
Derivatives
ˈschoolboy-like adv. and adj.
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c1600 Club Law (1907) i. v. 7 Meethinks it is the Childest thinge to be breched, so schooleboylike.
1646 J. Bastwick Utter Routing of Army of Independents 19 I have here set down his words at large, omitting only the greek and latin texts which he School-boy-like scribleth, to little other purpose than to shew his own vanity.
1703 W. Freke Divine Gram. iii. 199 Here I am in my School, and I am leaving it if I could; but his Authority withstands my Schoolboy-like Endeavours of loitering in it.
1740 L. Whyte Poems 130 The motive of our meeting here Is not to guzzle Ale, or Beer,..Nor School-boy-like to sneer and laugh.
1801 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 313/2 [The signature] of Francis..is wrote in a most schoolboy like manner.
1884 Punch 25 Oct. 196/1 School-boylike, he has fallen in love with a young lady considerably his senior.
1912 A. Lang Hist. Eng. Lit. (1914) xxxiii. 558 His freakish moods of schoolboy-like high spirits.
1998 Independent (Nexis) 23 Mar. 3 He giggles, schoolboy-like.
2010 Atlanta Jrnl.-Constit. (Nexis) 23 Oct. 1 b [The giant panda] continues to charm zoo visitors with his schoolboy-like antics.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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