boyn.¹int.

Brit.

/bɔɪ/, U.S.

/bɔɪ/

Forms: Middle English bey, Middle English beye, Middle English boey, Middle English boi, Middle English boiȝe, Middle English bye, Middle English–1500s bay, Middle English–1600s boie, Middle English–1700s boye, Middle English– boy, 1500s boay, 1500s boaye, 1500s boyee, 1500s buy, 1600s buoy, 1800s– bwoy (regional); English regional 1800s buoy (south-western), 2000s– boay (Cornwall); Scottish pre-1700 boye, pre-1700 1700s– boy, 1900s– beuy (Orkney), 1900s– boay; also Irish English 1800s buye (Wexford), 1800s bye (Wexford), 1900s– bhoy (northern); also Manx English 1700s boch, 1900s– boh; also Welsh English 1900s– ba, 1900s– booi.

Origin: Of uncertain origin.

Etymology: Origin uncertain, as is the early development of the word.The meanings ‘male servant’ (sense A. 1a) and ‘churl’ (sense A. 2) are found from an early date, as are pejorative uses of the latter sense as a term of abuse (albeit perhaps sometimes with affectionate overtones). The meaning ‘male child or youth’ apparently emerged considerably later, probably as a development from pejorative uses in the sense ‘churl’. For a detailed analysis of Middle English examples see E. J. Dobson ‘The etymology and meaning of boy’ in Medium Ævum 9 (1940) 121–54. Various earlier examples of sense A. 3a have been suggested, but are uncertain. The following example in particular could perhaps be interpreted as showing this sense, but (as argued by Dobson) the context probably instead suggests either a weakened, colloquial use of sense A. 2 or a deliberately insulting use of this sense:c1410 (c1350) Gamelyn (Harl. 7334) l. 230 Whil þou were a ȝong boy, a moche schrewe þou were. The word is perhaps attested earlier as a byname and surname: compare Fil. Roberti litelboie (?1205–6), Willelmi Godeboye (1269), etc., and also Aluuinus boi (1086), Will. boie (1154), Will. Boie (1175), Alanus Boye (1198), etc., although the latter group in particular are open to different interpretations. In the Old English period a personal name (perhaps of continental rather than native origin) Boia is also found, but it is very uncertain whether this has any direct connection with the present word. On some possible occurrences in place names (perhaps from as early as the 8th cent., although the documentation is much later) compare discussion in Vocab. Eng. Place-names at boia, although compare also the difficulties of interpretation mentioned there. (However, for a detailed analysis of the name evidence which does conclude that there is a link with the present word see K. Dietz ‘Mittelenglisch oi in heimischen Ortsnamen und Personennamen’ in Beiträge zur Namenforschung 16 (1981) 361–405.) Etymologies of the word have been suggested on the basis either that the word is a borrowing < French (in which case any connection with pre-Conquest name evidence is generally rejected), or that it is of Germanic origin, either as a native Old English word or as a borrowing (in which case at least some of the name evidence is usually held to be connected). The suggested French etymology which has been taken up most widely (proposed by E. J. Dobson in Medium Ævum 9 (1940) 121–54 and Medium Ævum 12 (1943) 71–6) connects the word with Anglo-Norman boie boy n.², in Dobson's account via an (unrecorded) shortened variant (by aphaeresis) of emboié , embuié , enbué , enbuié , anbué (adjective) fettered, (noun) person in chains (12th cent.), spec. uses of the past participle of the derivative verb embuier to put in fetters. Such an origin would account well for the variation shown by the English word, and also gives an entirely plausible explanation of the sense ‘male servant’. (It has been objected that such aphaeresis is not common in Anglo-Norman, although if so it seems possible that the English word could be more directly connected with the simplex Anglo-Norman boie . For an overview of other comments critical of this theory, and for summary of other etymological suggestions, see A. Liberman ‘The etymology of English boy, beacon, and buoy’ in American Journal of Germanic Linguistics & Literatures 12 (2000) 201–34.) An alternative French etymology has been suggested < Old French boiasse, rare variant (13th cent.) of Anglo-Norman baisse , baiesse , baasse , baesse , beiesse and Old French baiasse , baiasse female servant (c1200; probably < an unattested form *bacassa ), on the assumption that (either in French or in English) the ending -asse was interpreted as showing the feminine suffix -esse -ess suffix¹, hence giving rise by analogy to a masculine form boie . This suggestion is weakened by the fact that there is no secure evidence either for the masculine form in French or for the feminine form in English, and also that the form boiasse is apparently not attested in Anglo-Norman. (For advocacy of this suggestion see B. Diensberg ‘The etymology of modern English boy: a new hypothesis’ in Medium Ævum 50 (1981) 79–87.) The resemblance is perhaps purely coincidental to Middle Dutch boye , boije , boy , boeije , boey , boe , boye (especially female) servant, term of familiar address (especially to a woman) (late 14th cent.; Dutch booi ), which probably shows a variant of bode messenger, male or female servant (see bode n.¹): see discussion in E. J. Dobson ‘Middle English and Middle Dutch boye’ in Medium Ævum 12 (1943) 71–6. Compare (probably < Dutch) West Frisian boi , German regional (Low German) boi , boy boy, young man. However, for a differing interpretation of this material see K. Roelandts ‘De etymologie van Fries boai, Engels boy en Middelnederlands boye’ in N. R. Århammar et al. Miscellanea Frisica (1984) 123–36, suggesting an origin for all of these forms in familiar (perhaps nursery) forms of brother n. or its cognates, in which connection perhaps compare German Bube and (apparently) related forms.

A. n.¹

a. A male servant, slave, assistant, junior employee, etc.Often with implication of relative youth, and hence not readily distinguishable from senses A. 3a and A. 3c.Frequently as the second element in compounds, as house-boy, link-boy, office boy, post boy, pot-boy, etc.: for established compounds see the first element.

(a) In general use. Now rare except in some former British colonies.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > slave

theowc893

thrallc950

young manOE

slavec1290

boyc1300

servanta1325

bondc1330

bondmana1340

manciplea1387

man's-bond?a1400

thrillc1480

thrillmanc1480

serf1483

bondservant1535

bondslave1561

bondling1587

slave-boy1607

slave-labourer1607

chattel1649

bondsman1713

livestock1755

esne1819

thirl-man1871

task-labourer1897

c1300 (?c1225) King Horn (Cambr.) (1901) l. 1075 (MED) He com to þe gateward þat him answerede hard..þe boye [c1300 Laud, a1350 Harl. porter] hit scholde abugge; Horn þreu him ouer þe brigge.

c1330 in T. Wright Polit. Songs Eng. (1839) 341 (MED) A boy for to bere a lettre.

a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) l. 1705 Sche..borwed boiȝes cloþes..& bogeysliche as a boye, busked to þe kychene.

a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) ii. l. 1033 With his suerd[e], but she [sc. Lucretia] wolde assent, Hire and a boy he wolde prente ifeer.

c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure l. 3122 Boyes in þe subarbis bourden full heghe.

1480 G. Cely Let. 24 Nov. in Cely Lett. (1975) 102 Ytt ys so that Y do send Harry my boye to whayght appon my brodyr this Crystmesse.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) 1 Sam. ii. 13 The prestes boye came, whyle the flesh was seething.

1601 F. Tate Househ. Ord. Edward II (1876) §94. 56 That none of the kings meignee..charetter or sompter boy..keepe his wife at the court.

1651 T. L. To Church of Rome in Πολύπενϑεος Θρηνωδία 9 By David his Boy, whom his heart approved.

1675 Char. Town Misse 6 And now being arrived at the Zenith of her Glory, she has her Boys in Livery, her House splendidly furnisht, and scorns to stir abroad without a Coach and six.

1721 P. Aubin Life Madam de Beaumount ii. 36 I resolved to continue in the Cave, with my two Servants, my Maid, and a Boy, whom I had brought from France.

1764 T. Jefferson Corr. in Wks. (1859) I. 190 You mention one [letter] you wrote last Friday, and sent by the Secretary's boy.

1860 Amer. Law Reg. 8 567 Witness says that he heard nothing more of them, except that a boy was sent down for liquor, and witness had to get bar-checks for the boy.

1912 E. Wharton Reef (1914) 199 Darrow..saw the doctor's old-fashioned carriage by the roadside. ‘Let me tell the doctor's boy to drive you back,’ he suggested.

1939 Fortune Oct. 80/1 Twenty-one years ago President W. Warren Humphrey..started as a stock-room boy.

a1961 E. Hemingway Garden of Eden (1987) iv. xxviii. 233 ‘Immediately after Monsieur and Madame left,’ Madame Aurol said. ‘She sent the boy to the station for the ticket and to reserve a wagon-lit.’

1971 R. Russell tr. A. Ahmad Shore & Wave xv. 161 Boy, three chhota pegs.

1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 37 ‘Why does he go out and pinch all his dogs in person? He's an administrator, isn't he? Wouldn't he hire a boy or something?’ ‘We call them “staff”,’ Roger replies.

2002 H. Igboanusi Dict. Nigerian Eng. Usage 65 I have been staying in my bookshop since this year because my boys have become very dishonest.

(b) Used (chiefly by white people) with reference to non-white slaves and (in English-speaking colonies) to non-white servants, labourers, etc. Also as a form of address (esp. as a summons). Now historical and rare (usually considered offensive).

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > Indian or Chinese

boy1625

society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > black

black boy1594

boy1625

Cape boy1892

Stepin Fetchit1940

society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > slave > black

jong1615

servant1643

New Negro1701

salt-water Negro1708

boy1796

blackbird1853

intelligent contraband1861

contraband1862

1625 W. Hawkins in S. Purchas Pilgrimes I. iii. vii. 211 My Boy Stephen Grauener.

1628 World Encompassed by Sir F. Drake 55 We met a Spaniard with an Indian boy, driving 8. Lambes or Peruvian sheepe.

1681 R. Knox Hist. Relation Ceylon 124 We had a black boy my Father brought from Porta Nova to attend upon him.

1722 D. Defoe Moll Flanders 357 About two Hours after he was gone, he sent me a Maid-Servant, and a Negro Boy to wait on me.

1796 tr. A. von Kotzebue Negro Slaves i. v. 22 You are an old boy, I suppose you was sold for a couple of yards of linen, and some bottles of brandy.

?1796 Periodical Accts. Missions Church United Brethren 1 274 Baas Teunis having left a draught of oxen here at pasture in coming to the town, they were now put to the waggon, and the former driven behind us by a Hottentot boy.

1812 A. Plumptre tr. H. Lichtenstein Trav. S. Afr. I. i. viii. 119 A Hottentot..expects to be called by his name if addressed by any one who knows it; and by those to whom it is not known he expects to be called Hottentot..or boy.

1834 E. Markham N.Z. Recoll. (1963) 72 They picked out two of the strongest of the Boys (as they call the Men) about the place.

1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xxx. 166 ‘Now up with you, boy! d'ye hear?’ said the auctioneer to Tom.

1876 E. Thorne Queen of Colonies 58 The blacks who work on a station or farm are always, like the blacks in the Southern States, called boys.

1907 N.Y. Evening Post (Semi-weekly ed.) 13 May 6 The register clerk [at a Shanghai hotel] assigns you to a room, and instead of ‘Front!’ he shouts ‘Boy!’

1943 D. Welch Maiden Voy. xviii. 145 I noticed that everything was covered with a fine, sandy dust. I thought that the coolies and Boys must be very lazy.

1960 Northern Territory News (Darwin) 5 Feb. 5/5 Aborigine Wally..described himself as ‘number one boy’ at the station.

2000 New Straits Times (Malaysia) (Nexis) 8 Oct. 12 Proudlock was acting headmaster of the Victoria Institution, and..they had three servants—‘boy’, ayah and cook.

†b. A male civilian informally attached to an encamped or travelling body of soldiers; a camp follower. Obsolete.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > warrior > camp follower > [noun]

rascal1539

lackey1556

boy1572

soldier's boy1611

camper1631

lix1665

retainer1784

camp-follower1810

1572 J. Sadler tr. Vegetius Foure Bks. Martiall Policye iii. vii. f. 32^v If any water be rough and boysterous, or the chanell verye broade, it manye times drowneth the carriages and the boyes and nowe and then slouthfull and lyther souldiours.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V iv. vii. 1 Godes plud kil the boyes and the lugyge, Tis the arrants peece of knauery.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iv. iv. 72 The French might haue a good pray of vs, if he knew of it, for there is none to guard it [sc. the luggage] but boyes .

1647 C. Cotterell & W. Aylesbury tr. E. C. Davila Hist. Civill Warres France iv. 245 With the same readinesse the Admirall following and all the chief Officers of the Army, and from hand to hand the Gentlemen, with the common souldiers, and even the footmen and boyes in the Camp, they made up the Sum of 30000 crowns.

c. A non-white male. Now usually considered offensive (as being associated with sense A. 1a(b)).

ΚΠ

1821 E. S. Pigot Jrnl. 45 in Dict. S. Afr. Eng. on Hist. Princ. (1996) 124/3 The Bush boy took off all the gentlemen; we danced more, then he took off the Ladies, made us laugh very much.

1864 Lady Duff-Gordon in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1862–3 215 Yes, madam, it is shocking here how people treat the blacks. They call quite an old man ‘boy’, and speak so scornfully.

1888 L. D. Powles Land of Pink Pearl 66 Every darky, however old, is a boy.

1952 Here & Now (N.Z.) Jan. 21 ‘D'ere d'hino,’ said the Maori boy at the pool table.

1973 Black Panther 8 Sept. 7/2 Guards [in Alabama] still use the term ‘boy’ to refer to Black prisoners.

1992 Weekly Mail (Johannesburg) 24 Apr. 32 Some of the correspondents who helped him with bursaries referred to him as a ‘boy’... ‘That was a different era.’

d. A junior military rank in various forces; a person of this rank. Now historical.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > airman > [noun] > boy

boy1841

1841 Times 6 May 5/4 Wounded... Lieutenant Bowers, severely. 1 Boy, 1st class, severely.

1918 Army Orders Nov. 35 The following additional column will be inserted in the table of corresponding ranks..Royal Air Force..Air Mechanic, 3rd Class. Private, 2nd Class. Clerk, 3rd Class. Boy.

1924 R.A.F. King's Regulations I. p. vii Airman, or Airmen. These words, wherever they occur, will be held to include a warrant officer, a N.C.O., an aircraftman, and a boy.

1947 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 110 34 We have Rating Group 3, much the largest in the Navy, and consisting of Able Seaman, Ordinary Seaman, Boy 1st Class and Boy 2nd Class.

1963 Times 30 Apr. 16/2 He joined the Navy as a boy second class in 1898.

1996 T. Copp & R. Nielsen No Price Too High i. 34/2 Then battle dress was issued. There were three of us with the rank of boy in the unit and we were the last to get it.

†2. A male person of low birth or status; (as a general term of contempt or abuse) a worthless fellow, a knave, a rogue, a wretch. Obsolete.Sometimes overlapping with sense A. 3c.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > roguery > rogue > [noun]

harlot?c1225

truantc1290

shreward1297

boyc1300

lidderon13..

cokinc1330

pautenerc1330

bribera1387

bricouna1400

losarda1400

rascal?a1400

custronc1400

knapea1450

sloven?a1475

limmerc1485

knavatec1506

smaik?1507

smy?1507

koken?a1513

swinger1513

Cock Lorel?1518

pedlar's French1530

varletc1540

losthope?c1550

makeshift1554

wild rogue1567

miligant1568

rogue1568

crack-halter1573

rascallion1582

schelm1584

scoundrel1589

scaba1592

bezonian1592

slave1592

rampallion1593

Scanderbeg1601

roly-poly1602

canter1608

cantler1611

gue1612

fraudsman1613

Cathayana1616

crack-hempa1616

foiterer1616

tilt1620

picaro1622

picaroon1629

sheepmanc1640

rapscallion1648

scaramouch1677

fripon1691

trickster1711

shake-bag1794

sinner1809

cad1838

badmash1843

scattermouch1892

jazzbo1914

society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > roguery, knavery, or rascalry > [noun] > rogue, knave, or rascal

harlot?c1225

knavec1275

truantc1290

shreward1297

boinarda1300

boyc1300

lidderon13..

cokinc1330

pautenerc1330

bribera1387

bricouna1400

losarda1400

rascal?a1400

knapea1450

lotterela1450

limmerc1485

Tutivillus1498

knavatec1506

smy?1507

koken?a1513

swinger1513

Cock Lorel?1518

pedlar's French1530

cust1535

rabiator1535

varletc1540

Jack1548

kern1556

wild rogue1567

miligant1568

rogue1568

tutiviller1568

rascallion1582

schelm1584

scoundrel1589

rampallion1593

Scanderbeg1601

scroyle1602

canter1608

cantler1611

skelm1611

gue1612

Cathayana1616

foiterer1616

tilt1620

picaro1622

picaroon1629

sheepmanc1640

rapscallion1648

marrow1656

Algerine1671

scaramouch1677

fripon1691

shake-bag1794

badling1825

tiger1827

two-for-his-heels1837

ral1846

skeezicks1850

nut1882

gun1890

scattermouch1892

tug1896

natkhat1901

jazzbo1914

scutter1940

bar steward1945

hoor1965

c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 1899 (MED) Þer mithe men wel se boyes bete..And hauelok on hem wel wreke.

c1330 in T. Wright Polit. Songs Eng. (1839) 335 (MED) Knihtshipe is acloied..Kunne a boy nu breke a spere, he shal be mad a kniht. And thus ben knihtes gadered of unkinde blod.

c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) l. 1217 Was nowt þe boi of wit bireued.

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Friar's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 22 An Erchedekne..hadde a Somnour, redy to his hond. A slyer boy, nas noon in Engelond..To telle his harlotrye, I wol nat spare.

c1410 (c1350) Gamelyn (Harl. 7334) l. 488 (MED) It is moche skaþe, boy, þat þou art on lyue!

a1450 York Plays (1885) 257 Sir knyghtys, do kepe þis boy [sc. Peter] in bande.

?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 227 (MED) Þus a bey to a jentylman to make comparycion.

1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples f. 76, in Bulwarke of Defence Through a very vile coward or boie, often the valiaunt man is slaine.

1588 ‘M. Marprelate’ Oh read ouer D. Iohn Bridges: Epist. 30 Calling him boy, knaue, varlet, slanderer.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) v. vi. 103 Auf. Name not the God, thou boy of Teares... Corio. Measurelesse Lyar, thou hast made my heart Too great for what containes it. Boy? Oh Slaue.

1683 in Notes & Queries (1854) 1st Ser. 9 15/2 A sort of vicious idle and masterless boyes and rogues commonly called the Black~guard..do usually haunt and follow the Court.

a. A male child or youth. Also: a son, irrespective of age (chiefly as referred to by members of the immediate family).Sometimes restricted to male children below the age of puberty, or below the school-leaving age.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > young person > youth or young man > [noun]

frumberdlingc1000

young manOE

childc1225

hind1297

pagec1300

youtha1325

fawnc1369

swainc1386

stripling1398

boy1440

springaldc1450

jovencel1490

younkera1522

speara1529

gorrel1530

lad1535

hobbledehoy1540

cockerel1547

waga1556

spring1559

loonc1560

hensure1568

youngster1577

imp1578

pigsney1581

cocklinga1586

demy1589

muchacho1591

shaver1592

snipper-snappera1593

callant1597

spaught1598

stubble boy1598

ghillie1603

codling1612

cuba1616

skippera1616

man-boy1637

sprig1646

callow1651

halflang1660

stubbed boy1683

gossoon1684

gilpie1718

stirraha1722

young lion1792

halfling1794

pubescent1795

young man1810

sixteener1824

señorito1843

tad1845

boysie1846

shaveling1854

ephebe1880

boychick1921

lightie1946

young blood1967

studmuffin1986

the world > people > person > child > boy > [noun]

knightc893

knapec1000

knaveOE

knape childc1175

knave-childa1225

groom?c1225

knight-bairnc1275

pagec1300

mana1382

swainc1386

knave-bairna1400

little mana1425

man-childa1438

boy1440

little boya1475

lad1535

boykin1540

tomboya1556

urchin1556

loonc1560

kinchin-co(ve)1567

big boy1572

dandiprat1582

pricket1582

boy child1584

callant1597

suck-egg1609

nacketc1618

custrel1668

hospital-boy1677

whelp1710

laddie1721

charity-boy1723

pam-child1760

chappie1822

bo1825

boyo1835

wagling1837

shirttail boy1840

boysie1846

umfaan1852

nipper1859

yob1859

fellow-my-lad?1860

laddo1870

chokra1875

shegetz1885

spalpeen1891

spadger1899

bug1900

boychick1921

sonny boy1928

sonny1939

okie1943

lightie1946

outjie1961

oke1970

Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 35 (MED) Bye or boye: Bostio.

a1475 Friar & Boy (Brogyntyn) in J. O. Halliwell Early Eng. Misc. (1855) 48 ‘To the fylde schalle go the chyld’..Furthe than went the lytelle boy.

c1475 Wisdom (Folger) (1969) 65 (stage direct.) (MED) Here rennyt owt..vi small boys.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Zech. viii. 5 The stretes of the citie shalbe full of yonge boyes and damselles [1382 Wyclif infauntes and maydens; 1388 yonge children and maidens; 1611 boyes and girles].

?1548 J. Bale Comedy Thre Lawes Nature iii. sig. Cvij^v Come, axe me blessynge, lyke praty boyes apace.

1549 in W. Greenwell Wills & Inventories Registry Durham (1860) II. 132 I give vnto my wife my house vnto my boy be of xxiiij yeirs of age.

1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 56 This boye who was made ouerseer of them, was commonly twenty yeres of age.

1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. i. 119 When King Pippen of Frannce was a litle boy .

1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler ii. 46 The very boyes will learn to talk and swear.

1671 J. Sharp Midwives Bk. v. i. 233 A woman delivered of a Boy, must continue in her purification thirty three dayes, and for a girl sixty six days.

1711 J. Swift Jrnl. to Stella 7 Mar. (1948) I. 208 I find I was mistaken in the sex, 'tis a boy.

1752 S. Johnson Rambler No. 198. ⁋3 The sailor hated to see tall boys shut up in a school.

1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. xxiii. 72 Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy?

1844 A. B. Welby Poems (1867) 97 A noble sturdy boy is he, and yet he's only five.

1866 S. B. Warner Word I. xvii. 219 Driven from home, her boy put out of his birthright, disowned and disgraced, she felt no doubt very forlorn.

1908 R. Brooke Poet. Wks. (1970) 155 The thing must End. I am no boy! I am No boy!! being twenty-one.

1945 E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. i. 27 That..was Lord Sebastian Flyte. A most amusing young gentleman... The Marquis of Marchmain's second boy.

1989 M. Dorris Broken Cord iv. 65 I continually struggled to understand my little boy as he grew older.

2007 Voice 16 Apr. 30/2 I honestly do feel that my boys are missing out big time on that father figure.

b. colloquial. In expressions of encouragement, admiration, etc. Esp. in that's my boy, that's the boy (see that pron.¹ 1b(a)).In quot. 1575 addressed to a dog.

ΚΠ

1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie xxxix. 107 If he perceiue that his hounde draw right, let him clappe him on the side & cherish him, saying, Thats my boy, thats he, thats he.

1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. i. 109 I thats my boy, thy father hath full oft, For his vngratefull Countrie done the like.

a1625 J. Fletcher Bonduca iv. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) 62 That's my boy, my sweet boy.

1715 H. Carey Contrivances 25 Boy. I pick'd it out of my Master's Coat-Pocket, Sir, this Morning... Rove. That's my Boy—there, there's Mony for you.

1829 W. N. Glascock Sailors & Saints I. 212 ‘That's the boy!’ cried the boatswain's-mate, who..was as rank a fatalist as most of his superstitious profession—‘that's the boy, that always brings the luck.’

1831 J. Hardiman Irish Minstrelsy 79 They cry he's the boy, our darling and joy, Still ready to sport, or to court, or to toy.

1884 Catholic World Dec. 417 ‘That's the boy, Tom,’ said Larry Jot approvingly; ‘you're able to take care of 'em like a man.’

1902 J. J. Bell Wee Macgreegor ii. 13 ‘If a beast wis gaun fur to pu' ma heid aff,’ remarked Macgregor, who had grown suddenly bold, ‘I-I-I wud—I wud gi'e't a kick!’ ‘Ye're the boy!’ said his father.

1932 E. Wallace When Gangs came to London ii. 26 ‘Ain't you the boy!’ he said.

1962 H. Hood in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 205 John's the boy. Oh, he's a sharp lad is John.

1992 P. McCabe Butcher Boy (1993) 62 Right come on up here Philip and show the class. That's the boy. Good lad Philip. Watch carefully now everyone.

c. In playful, affectionate, or slighting use: a young man, a fellow. Also as a form of address.Also as the second element in compounds (in many of which the suggestion of youth has largely or entirely disappeared), as city, golden, lover, nature, wide boy, etc.: see the first element.For earlier similar affectionate use to a horse see quot. c1405 at sense A. 4b.

ΚΠ

1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Apr. 155 Ah foolish boy, that is with loue yblent.

1599 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet iii. i. 130 Thou wretched boy that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence.

1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing v. i. 79 If thou kilst me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

1722 Daily Post 19 Mar. He is a fat, chubby boy, aged about 20 or thereabouts.

a1791 J. Wesley Serm. lxxxiii, in Wks. (1811) IX. 434 Every one has his hobby-horse! Something that pleases the great boy for a few hours.

1863 C. Reade Hard Cash III. iii. 90 I love you with all my soul, Alfred; I worship the ground you walk on, my sweet, sweet boy.

1883 R. Broughton Belinda I. i. i. 46 Rivers looks at her; looks at her as a wholesome minded and bodied boy of twenty-two does look at his first love.

1893 O. Wilde Let. ?Jan. (1962) 326 My Own Boy, Your sonnet is quite lovely.

1934 ‘N. West’ Cool Million xix. 135 Listen, boy,..see this gat? Well, if you don't behave I'll drill you clean.

1989 Washington Post (Nexis) 15 July a19 A world in which women have the power to dictate what toys the boys will buy to assert their manhood.

2001 L. Rennison Knocked out by Nunga-nungas 119 Yesssssss! Owzat!!!!!!! The boy's a genius!

d. A man, without connotation of age. Now chiefly regional except as the second element of compounds.Sometimes used spec. of unmarried men still living in their parents' home.Cf. backroom boy at back room n. b, cowboy n. 2b, good old boy n. at good adj., n., adv., and int. Compounds 1c, old boy n., wide boy n. at wide adj. Compounds 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > man > [noun]

churla800

werec900

rinkeOE

wapmanc950

heOE

wyeOE

gomeOE

ledeOE

seggeOE

shalkOE

manOE

carmanlOE

mother bairnc1225

hemea1250

mother sona1250

hind1297

buck1303

mister mana1325

piecec1325

groomc1330

man of mouldc1330

hathela1350

sire1362

malea1382

fellowa1393

guestc1394

sergeant?a1400

tailarda1400

tulka1400

harlotc1405

mother's sona1470

frekea1475

her1488

masculinea1500

gentlemana1513

horse?a1513

mutton?a1513

merchant1549

child1551

dick1553

sorrya1555

knavea1556

dandiprat1556

cove1567

rat1571

manling1573

bird1575

stone-horse1580

loona1586

shaver1592

slave1592

copemate1593

tit1594

dog1597

hima1599

prick1598

dingle-dangle1605

jade1608

dildoa1616

Roger1631

Johnny1648

boy1651

cod1653

cully1676

son of a bitch1697

cull1698

feller1699

chap1704

buff1708

son of a gun1708

buffer1749

codger1750

Mr1753

he-man1758

fella1778

gilla1790

gloak1795

joker1811

gory1819

covey1821

chappie1822

Charley1825

hombre1832

brother-man1839

rooster1840

blokie1841

hoss1843

Joe1846

guy1847

plug1848

chal1851

rye1851

omee1859

bloke1861

guffin1862

gadgie1865

mug1865

kerel1873

stiff1882

snoozer1884

geezer1885

josser1886

dude1895

gazabo1896

jasper1896

prairie dog1897

sport1897

crow-eater1899

papa1903

gink1906

stud1909

scout1912

head1913

beezer1914

jeff1917

pisser1918

bimbo1919

bozo1920

gee1921

mush1936

rye mush1936

basher1942

okie1943

mugger1945

cat1946

ou1949

tess1952

oke1970

bra1974

muzhik1993

1651 W. Davenant Gondibert ii. iii. 102 Gondibert (to whom the Court must bow, Now War is with your Fav'rite overthrown) Will by his Camp of Boys at Bergamo, Wed her, who to your Valour ows the Crown.

1663 T. Jordan Royal Arbor Loyal Poesie 6 Cornish boyes be bold, Never lose your hold, He that loiters, Is by Traytors Basely bought and sold.

1745 J. Swift Dick's Variety in Misc. X. 230 Let the Boys pelt him if they dare.

1754 Sons of Ireland 9 His exit will be with his neck in a loop, Surrounded with brave Newrey boys in a troop.

1834 Universal Songster I. 10/2 No wonder that we Irish boys should be so gay and frisky.

1847 Paddiana I. 263 Judge Moore having decided in my hearing, that in Ireland the word ‘Boy’ has no reference to age.

1863 J. Moreton Life & Work in Newfoundland 9 The ‘boys’ in a fisherman's household are all the males, of whatever age, except the father or master.

1867 W. H. Dixon New Amer. i These Western boys (every man living beyond the Missouri is a Boy, just as every woman is a Lady).

1880 M. A. Courtney W. Cornwall Words in M. A. Courtney & T. Q. Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 6/1 There are no men in Cornwall; they are all Cornish boys.

1908 Westm. Gaz. 16 Oct. 11/2 In Ireland anyone who is not married is called a boy... John Gillan, the ‘boy’, a sturdy young man, then gave evidence.

1911 A. Warrack Scots Dial. Dict. Boy, a male person of any age or condition, if unmarried and residing in the family home.

1971 G. J. Casey Traditions & Neighbourhoods 168 Joey was no coward, but he was no Irish boy.

1985 L. Lochhead tr. Molière Tartuffe 26 This boay couldny love you mair. He's fairly burnin' tae be yir man.

2004 Irish Times (Nexis) 26 Jan. 17 I am told that the Duke of Devonshire and his wife were charmed at being thanked by a woman in a fishing-tackle shop: ‘Thanks, your grace, Mrs Devonshire. Good luck with the fishin', boy, and you too, girl.’

2005 J. Aitken Porridge & Passion xi. 161 ‘I thought I recognized a Suffolk accent.’ ‘Well you're roight boy,’ said the Principal Officer relapsing into broad Suffolk.

e. Appended to a male forename (esp. as a form of address).

ΚΠ

1728 I. Dandridge Like will to Like I. xii. 27 Ah dear Billy-boy, There wou'd be Days for you and I!

1889 B. Harte Cressy xiii. 278 ‘What is it, Johnny boy?’ asked the master tenderly.

1909 W. A. White Certain Rich Man xvi. 220 He's too many for me—that Johnny boy is. I can't make him out.

1978 J. McGahern Getting Through 128 Rise it, Jimmy. More power to your elbow, Jimmy Boy!

1989 T. Clancy Clear & Present Danger viii. 136 Can you still cut it, Johnny boy?

2008 Gold Coast Bull. (Austral.) (Nexis) 3 Jan. Davey boy, your time was the result of your choices.

a. As a familiar form of address to a man.Formerly often with my, dear, old (see also old boy n. 1); this usage is now generally considered old-fashioned or upper-class.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > familiar form of address

mon amic1425

matec1500

boy1532

old lad1594

old boy1602

captaina1616

mon cher1673

old chap1823

old man1828

ou maat1838

boysie1846

old top1856

boetie1867

bra1869

cocker1888

mon vieux1888

face1891

yessir1892

George1903

old sport1905

old bean1917

segotia1917

babe1918

bro1918

tovarish1918

old egg1919

midear1921

old (tin of) fruit1923

sport1923

mush1936

cowboy1961

coz1961

wack1963

yaar1963

John1982

1532 Remedy of Love in Wks. G. Chaucer f. ccclxv If the yonge man speke, anon he saythe boye To rebuke age, besemeth the not ywis.

1565 A. Golding tr. Ovid Fyrst Fower Bks. Metamorphosis iii. f. 10^v Feare not my boy (the Patrone sayd) no more but tell me where Thou doost desyre too go a lande.

1584 G. Peele Araygnem. Paris iii. v. p. i My boy, I will instruct thee in a peece of poetrie, That happly erst thou hast not heard.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) ii. iv. 119 But di'de thy sister of her loue my Boy ?

a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) ii. ii. 53 To sea, boys, and let her goe hang.

1703 E. Ward Secret Hist. Calves-head Club 15 Then Boys let's drink a Bumper, since their Actions made us great.

1726 C. Johnson Female Fortune-teller iv. 64 Sir Cha. How came you to act? Ring. Bagatelle, my dear Boy, no more Examination.

1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker III. 154 Well done, my dear boy!—O bravo!

1823 W. Scott St. Ronan's Well I. xiii. 300 I will have no objection in life to take Mr Tyrrel's place, and serve your occasion, my boy!

1895 S. Crane Red Badge of Courage xxi ‘A feller named Wilson,’ he ses. There, Wilson, m'boy, put that in a letter an' send it hum t' yer mother, hay?

1938 F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad xix. 209 ‘Here they are, boys; get your tools ready.’.. As they ran they pulled weapons from under their coats.

1948 E. Waugh Loved One 3 They don't expect you to listen. Always remember that, dear boy.

1969 ‘M. Innes’ Family Affair x. 117 Come into my den, my dear boy. I've one or two things that ought to interest you.

2001 N. Weinstock As long as she needs Me 18 Yeegads. Agents are vultures, my boy.

b. As a familiar form of address to a male dog. Cf. quot. 1575 at sense A. 3b.

ΚΠ

c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Friar's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 263 That was wel twight myn owene lyard boy... Now is my Cart out of the slow pardee.]

1829 Cambrian Q. Mag. 1 369 Thou hast lost thy master, but I will find thee a new one: here, boy, here!

1844 S. Lover Treasure Trove 348 ‘Turlough! Turlough!—here boy!’ He began to talk to the dog in his own peculiar style.

1967 Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times 30 June 11/2 Go get it, boy, Harry, don't sit there and scratch.

1985 K. Fulves Self-working Paper Magic 72 I say the magic words ‘Fetch, boy’.

2007 Guardian (Nexis) 30 Oct. 31 Fido! Din dins! Here boy!

5. In plural. With reference to various bodies or loose associations of (young) men.

a. With preceding defining word or phrase.

(a) In the name of a particular gang or band. Also in singular: a member of such a gang.For established compounds, as Oakboy, Peep o' Day Boys, Roaring Boys, wren-boys, etc., see the first element.

ΘΚΠ

society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > [noun] > crime > a criminal or law-breaker > collectively

St Giles1714

boy1834

felonry1837

1614 J. Cooke Greenes Tu Quoque sig. C3 This is no angry, nor no roaring boy, but a blustering boy.

1616 B. Jonson Epicœne i. iv, in Wks. I. 537 The doubtfulnesse o' your phrase,..would breed you a quarrell, once an houre, with the terrible boyes .

1744 D. Horsmanden Jrnl. in N.Y. Conspiracy (1971) 82 It seems that..the confederates in each [district] were distinguished by the denomination of the Fly Boys and the Long Bridge Boys.

1772 London Chron. 18–21 Apr. 378/1 The Steel Boys came and fired into the house.

1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. x. 100/2 In Ireland..Ribbonmen, Cottiers, Peep-of-day Boys.

1927 Amer. Mercury Nov. 360/1 Streets over whose cobblestones the carriages of the aristocrats had rolled became nests of dives which sheltered the members of such celebrated river gangs as the Daybreak Boys.

1990 Toronto Star (Nexis) 4 Feb. a1 The bawdy house was run by a gang called the Dai Huen Jai, or the Big Circle Boys, a crime organization that started in mainland China at the turn of the century.

2001 Observer 18 Mar. (Britain Uncovered Suppl.) 58/3 The school became known as a recruiting ground for local gangs: the Brixton Boys, the Dulwich Crew and, more lately, the YPB (Young Peckham Boys).

(b) colloquial. More generally: men of the kind indicated by the defining element.backroom boys: see back room n. b.

ΚΠ

1918 Stars & Stripes 29 Mar. 6/4 Base and insidious reports to the effect that the Q.M. boys [i.e. the quartermaster's men] intend to get even by holding up the M.P.'s issue of cottons and summer lights until next November.

1937 A. Woollcott Let. 31 Oct. (1946) 157 It looks like an instance of clairvoyance which might be filed for reference with the extrasensory boys at Duke University.

1945 A. Huxley Time must have Stop (new ed.) xxx. 288 Just a little bit of Wordsworth, say the blue-dome-of-nature boys.

1958 Spectator 7 Feb. 167/2 The public relations boys could really go to town.

1963 R. Parker tr. A. Solzhenitsyn One Day in Life of Ivan Denisovich 36 Oh no, he wasn't ill, the security boys were keeping him back.

2001 B. Broady In this Block there lives Slag 100 I watched the dipsos, the perverts, the wannabe pimps, the Care in the Community Boys..all beating their paths to her door.

b. Without specifying word (esp. as the boys).

(a) Ruffians, yobs, hooligans, thugs. Cf. b'hoy n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [noun] > person

tyrant1377

routera1500

termagant1508

ruffy?a1513

ruffiana1525

pander1593

thunderbolt1593

bully1604

ruffiano1611

tearer1633

violentoa1661

boy1662

violent1667

hardhead1774

Arab1788

ring-tailed roarer1828

blood-tub1853

tornado1863

stormer1886

hooligan1898

Apache1902

ned1910

rough-up1911

radge1923

goonda1926

pretty-boy1931

tough baby1932

bad-john1935

hoon1938

shit-kicker1954

tough boy1958

oafo1959

ass-kicker1962

droog1962

trog1983

1662 Life & Death Mrs. Mary Frith 79 This was so famed and noysed all about Town that I durst not appear for the Boyes.

1664 T. Killigrew Parsons Wedding v. iv, in Comedies & Trag. 152 Her Lady and she are coming, but in such a fury, I would not have the storm find you in the street; therefore I counsel you to avoid the boys, and take shelter in the next house.

1705 P. A. Motteux Amorous Miser ii. i. 25 Shou'd this report only..continue three or four days, you wou'd not be able to appear at your own Door for the Boys. Not at your own Door, Signior!

a1790 B. Franklin Autobiogr. (1981) i. 7 I was generally a Leader among the Boys, and sometimes led them into Scrapes.

1834 Knickerbocker 3 34 The landlord after telling me not to mind the boys, went about his business.

1843 Punch 29 Apr. 179/2 The comments and cheers of those very important members of street society, the boys.

1855 E. G. Squier Waikna iv. 92 A figure approached, creating hardly less sensation among the people, than he would have done among the ‘boys’ in the Bowery.

1983 Times 25 July 11/3 Ring back pronto, schmuck or I'll send the boys round to break both yer legs.

1991 Independent (Nexis) 23 Feb. 15 If you find out who done it, we'll send the boys round and kneecap them.

(b) Men of the armed forces; soldiers.See also boys in blue n. at blue adj. and n. Phrases 7b.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > [noun] > collectively

boy1755

c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 7064 (MED) Wawain hadde wiþ him..Of orped boies þousandes fiftene.]

1755 A. Murray Let. 7 Oct. in Nova Scotia Hist. Soc. Coll. (1883) III. 165 If you will now Send Down a Good Parcel from your Districts, and Make your Boys Drive them this Length, I will take them off your hands.

1821 J. F. Cooper Spy I. xvi. 242 I sould two of her quarters to some of your troop; but divil the word did I tell the boys what an ould frind it was they had bought.

1881 F. E. Weatherly Old Brigade 2 Where are the boys of the Old Brigade?

1899 Congress. Rec. Feb. 1743/1 Some of you..remember when at Vicksburg our boys got so close to the Confederates that they talked back and forth.

1918 in F. A. Pottle Stretchers (1929) 116 Germans put over a box barrage entirely around the wood, hemming our boys in.

1959 M. Shadbolt New Zealanders 36 The time when we would watch the boys swing, bayonets flashing,..towards the grey waiting ships.

1997 Esquire Feb. 14/1 He returns this month to present a grunt's-eye-view of Bosnia and the boys of the 1st Armored Division's Dawg Pound Platoon.

(c) slang. The criminal fraternity; (sometimes spec.) the petty criminals frequenting a particular sporting venue, esp. a racecourse. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1846 N.Y. Herald 8 Feb. 1/4 ‘Crib’ in Park Row, where..the ‘boys’ were playing the thimble rig, commonly called the little Joker.

a1889 Bird o' Freedom (Sydney) in A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang (1889) I. 174/2 Cleansing the rings from..those criminal scoundrels known as the boys.

1925 Brit. Weekly 12 Mar. 573/2 Buy..small nuts and put them in your pocket with your cash. There isn't one of the boys can dip you [i.e. pick your pocket] then.

1937 Evening News 12 Mar. 15/6 (advt.) The twisters, the welshers, the ‘spivs’ and the ‘boys’ are getting ready for a profitable session of the gentle sport of rooking the racegoer.

1938 F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad i. 13 Down goes the Squad the night before to greet ‘the boys’ at the turnstiles.

(d) colloquial. Members of a group sharing common (typically masculine) interests; one's (male) fellows or habitual companions. Esp. in one of the boys: one who belongs to such a group; spec. one who conforms to its interests or practices, ‘a good sport’. Cf. lad n.¹ Additions.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > [noun] > one's fellows or habitual companions

boy1850

the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [noun] > quality of being a good fellow > good fellow or sport

sport1881

one of the boys1893

1850 J. G. Saxe Addr. & Proc. 132 I, who..Feel the natural pride of a dutiful son, And esteem it to-day, the proudest of joys, That, not less than yourselves, I am one of the boys!

1886 Lantern (New Orleans) 8 Sept. 3/1 When he happens in with the boys, he can enjoy himself.

1889 W. Skey Pirate Chief 195 He goes on Sundays to the ‘pub.’ And sits among ‘the boys’.

1893 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Nov. 20/3 She doesn't want to be treated like a lady because she wants to be ‘one of the boys’.

1930 P. G. Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves vii. 192 A chummy lion-tamer—a tamer who, after tucking the lions in for the night, relaxes in the society of the boys.

1969 New Yorker 3 May 64/3 He doesn't do it by being one of the boys. That's not his nature. He's a lone wolf.

1984 S. Knight Brotherhood ii. ix. 87 He was liked and respected as ‘one of the boys’, and a very different kind of respect from that enjoyed by the absent Commissioner.

2006 Marie Claire (U.K. ed.) Oct. 162/3 I would travel with him and the team,..and being with ‘the boys’ made it easier to forget than if we'd been wallowing at home.

†6. A piece of furniture used for storage. Obsolete. [The origin of this sense is uncertain, and it may perhaps show a different word. Compare later tallboy n. 2, lowboy n. 2.]

ΘΚΠ

society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > cupboard or cabinet > [noun] > other cupboards or cabinets

Flanders chest1400

warestall1508

livery cupboard1571

boy1656

by-closet1696

corner-cupboard1711

India cabinet1721

pot-cupboard1789

housemaid's cupboard1843

monocleid1885

vargueño1911

console1925

cocktail cabinet1928

storage unit1951

1656 in P. C. D. Brears Yorks. Probate Inventories 1542–1689 (1972) 113 Two hogsheads six barrells, gantreyes and a boy with glasse bottles.

1763 in J. Morris Adam Symes & his Descendants (1938) 118 1 Candle Boy, Canaster, Funnel, 7 old casks.

1781 in P. C. Moore Inventory Hartlebury Castle (1960) 65 Damask Silk bed Chamber—7 Yellow Japann'd lampes 2 Trays 2 Candlesticks a writing boy.

7. slang. Champagne. Usually with the. Now rare. [The origin of this sense is uncertain. Compare:

1890 J. S. Farmer Slang I. 313 A story, ben trovato, is told by the Sporting Times of June 30, 1882, as regards the origin of the phrase:—At a shooting part in Norfolk once, a youth was told off to supply the company with champagne. The day being hot and the sportsmen thirsty, cries of ‘Boy! Boy! Boy!’ were heard all day long. This tickling the fancy of the royal and noble party, the term ‘boy’ became applied to champagne.

1935 Times 18 Nov. 10/5 One still hears ‘The Boy’, and I believe such has been the case ever since ‘Veuve Clicquot’ became, for brevity's sake, ‘The Widow’.

]

ΘΚΠ

the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > wine > French wines > [noun] > champagne

champagne1664

Champagne wine1671

simkin1829

sham1848

fizz1864

widow1876

bubbly water1878

boy1882

bubble water1899

pink wine1900

bubbly1916

bubble?1920

champers1955

shampoo1957

1882 Punch 11 Feb. 69/1 He'll nothing drink but ‘B. & S.’ and big magnums of ‘the Boy’.

1882 Punch 82 155/1 Of course, beastly dinner, but very good boy. Had two magnums of it.

1929 Melody Maker Jan. 20/2 Lord Delamere came up to them with a foaming magnum of champagne and said, ‘Well, boys! you've given us a glorious time! What do you say to a beaker of “the boy”?’

1948 S. Sassoon Meredith vii. 86 Sala..was every inch a Fleet Street Bohemian, and his convivial suggestion may be assumed to have been ‘What about a bottle of the boy?’

8. U.S. slang. Heroin. Also with the, that. Cf. girl n. 10. Time (1951) 26 Feb. 24/2 records the use of the phrase ‘Do you need a boy?’ to ask drug dealers whether they have any heroin for sale.

ΘΚΠ

the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > an intoxicating drug > [noun] > a) narcotic drug(s) > morphine, cocaine, or heroin > heroin

heroin1898

junk1921

dynamite1924

schmeck1932

smack1942

horse1950

gear1954

boy1955

sugar1956

chiva1964

scag1967

hoss1968

scat1970

P-funk1982

black tar1983

1955 Amer. Speech 30 86 Boy, heroin, as opposed to girl, cocaine.

1960 C. Cooper Scene 12 But now he had the boy; he could lie around up in his crib,..drugged to the verge of insensibility.

1993 D. Coyle Hardball i. ii. 40 Like most big dealers, Rat worked in both ‘girl’, or cocaine, and ‘boy’, or heroin.

2000 F.E.D.S. Mag. 2 vi. 61/1 What kinds of drugs are they out there slinging?.. Everything from X to that Boy, but crack is still the biggest, that and weed.

B. int. colloquial (originally U.S.).

Expressing shock, surprise, excitement, appreciation, etc. Frequently used to give emphasis to the following statement.Frequently as oh boy! (cf. oboy int.); also as boy oh boy!, and sometimes with further reduplication.

ΚΠ

1894 G. Ade Chicago Stories 24 S-s-t! Boy! Same as last time.

1900 Nation (N.Y.) 6 Sept. 194/1 These biskits are light as a feather, but, boy, they'd be heavier 'n lead If I thought that my hosses was shiv'rin'.

1917 Amer. Mag. Mar. 13/1 ‘I told that dame I was Kid Hanlon.’..‘Oh, boy!’ I yells.

1930 D. H. Lawrence Nettles 17 And they blushed, they giggled, they sniggered, they leered..and said: Oh boy!..that's pretty hot!

1932 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. 2 Apr. 6/2 Of course, the above never really happened... But, boy, oh boy, oh boy, wouldn't a line like that knock an editor out of his chair?

1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose i. 2 I slithered in over the fence and put her [sc. the aeroplane] down and boy! was I glad to be on the ground!

1998 B. Kingsolver Poisonwood Bible (1999) ii. 123 But, boy oh boy, let me tell you, they all have shoes.

2005 E. C. Irwin in A. M. Weber & C. Haen Clin. Applic. Drama Therapy Child & Adolescent Treatm. i. 15 Once, when the big, bad guys were sent to jail, I said, ‘Oh, boy..what if in real life little people could be the boss of big people: wouldn't that be something!’

Phrases

P1. boys will be boys: used to express resignation regarding an (undesirable) aspect of the behaviour of a boy or young man, as being supposedly characteristic of his age or sex. Cf. girls will be girls at girl n. Phrases 1b.

ΚΠ

1770 R. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (ed. 3) VI. dccxviii. 125 Heaven bless them both!—though Jack is under a Cloud with me at present—but Boys will be Boys—and I endeavour to make my philosophy like yours—severe only to itself.

1797 Two Cousins 12 I'll tell you what, Sarah, boys will be boys, do what we will, and it is not in their nature to like old people.

1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) xiii. 112 And as for the pink bonnets..why boys will be boys.

1910 Times 8 Feb. 9/6 Boys will be boys, and probably most of us when we were at school have done much the same thing many a time.

1964 P. G. Wodehouse Frozen Assets iii. 50 I tried to tell him that boys will be boys and you're only young once.

1994 I. Welsh Acid House 125 The guy who knifed the boy..well, silly bugger, but boys will be boys.

P2.

a. boy-and-girl: (attributive) relating to or involving a boy and a girl; esp. in regard to a (youthful) love affair or romantic relationship.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > a lover > [adjective] > juvenile

boy-and-girl1841

1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge xxvi. 84 I have found it necessary to take some active steps towards setting this boy and girl attachment quite at rest.

1870 L. M. Alcott Old-fashioned Girl viii. 132 It's only a boy-and-girl fancy, that will soon die a natural death.

1934 P. Bottome Private Worlds v. 54 It was what people called ‘a boy and girl affair’, but they can go quite deep.

2002 Times (Nexis) 22 Jan. We had a true boy-and-girl affair: we went to the pictures, for trishaw rides, she cooked egg and chips for me..and we went swimming together off Changi Beach.

b. humorous. boys and girls: used as a form of address to a group of adults, esp. in imitation of a schoolteacher.

ΚΠ

1913 Outlook 27 Dec. 892/1 Now then, boys and girls,..this is Pete Crowther, the grocery salesman... I am going to give you some straight goods now about salesmanship, see?

1921 H. W. Witwer Leather Pushers x. 253 Yes, boys and girls, Nada was a pulse quickener of the first water.

1988 ‘J. Norst’ Colors vii. 97 Hey, boys and girls, did Uncle Bob make a fuckie-uppie here?

2007 Bellville (Illinois) News-Democrat (Nexis) 7 May Now, boys and girls, can you say hypocrite?

c. boy meets girl: used (chiefly attributive) with reference to a conventional or idealized romance.The extended phrase given in quot. 1935 is a line from the play Boy meets Girl, by B. C. Spewack and S. Spewack, which was first performed in Philadelphia on 18 Nov. 1935.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > love affair > [noun] > with reference to copy-book romance

boy meets girl1936

1935 N.Y. Times 6 Dec. 30/4 As for the libretto [of ‘May Wine’], Mr. Mandel has done a suitable job, according to the ‘boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl’ formula.]

1936 N.Y. Times 12 Apr. ix. 3/1 You are star material on the screen in most cases only as long as you..can be worked into the ‘Boy Meets Girl’ formula.

1936 Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 28 Sept. 2/3 The plot is the familiar boy meets girl theme.

1938 M. Blankfort in W. Kozlenko One-act Play Today 82 The social play is interested in boy meets girl. It is a situation which no one can or wants to avoid.

1947 Landfall i. 45 This immediately..reduces the story to the familiar Hollywood formula of boy-meets-girl.

1998 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) Nov. 16 This larky boy-meets-girl tale centres around the saucy activities of its heroine.

P3. to send a boy to do a man's job and variants: to ask someone young, ill-equipped, or inexperienced to do difficult or complicated work. Usually in negative contexts, as never send a boy to do a man's job.

ΚΠ

1861 N.Y. Times 16 Oct. 1/1 Gen. Hancock campaigned it through Mexico, and was too old a soldier to be caught sending a boy to do a man's work.

1899 Yale Law Rev. 9 76 To expect such men to grapple successfully with the great problems of city government is absurd. We send a boy to do a man's job.

1911 Los Angeles Times 10 Aug. ii. 4/2 Never send a boy to do a man's duty.

1951 L. Lariar You Can't Catch Me ii. 18 Do you send a boy out on a man's job?

1967 ‘E. McGirr’ Hearse with Horses vi. 142 Piron thought he shouldn't have sent a boy to do a man's job.

2008 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 12 Mar. 21 He has probably come to the conclusion one should never send a boy to do a man's job.

P4. jobs for the boys: preferential treatment (as by the securing of appointments) for one's supporters or favourites; a situation characterized by such treatment.

ΘΚΠ

society > occupation and work > position or job > [noun] > for one's favourites

jobs for the boys1910

1897 Daily Rev. (Decatur, Illinois) 23 Dec. 4/2 While it would be a good thing to confine the census to this mere enumeration of people, it is not at all likely it will be so confined. If the full line of work is not attempted, there will be no jobs for the boys in the bureau. The principal aim seems to be to secure the places.]

1910 B. B. Lindsey & H. J. O'Higgins Beast x. 181 We should have used the surplus to provide ‘jobs for the boys’, as the other courts did.

1950 D. Christie & C. Christie His Excellency i. i It's just a political racket—Jobs for the Boys.

1999 Independent 3 Feb. i. 8/6 Mr Ruffley said that from the answer, ‘it looks like jobs for the boys and cronyism’.

P5. boy next door: a boy with whom one has or might have grown up as a neighbour, esp. a boy conventionally presented as a model for emulation by parents to their own son (now rare), or a young man such as might feature in a conventional romance, regarded as attractive because of his naturalness, lack of sophistication or artifice, etc. Chiefly with the or attributive. Cf. girl next door at girl n. Phrases 2d.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > love affair > [noun] > with reference to copy-book romance > young man in conventional romance

boy next door1868

1868 R. H. Quick Ess. Educ. Reformers App. 317 Perhaps we remember that in our nursery experiences, the good little boy next door was frequently referred to as presenting a striking contrast with our own unworthiness.

1886 Congregationalist (Boston, Mass.) 20 May 7/1 The boy next door stands for the associate who sits beside him in the class-room, who shares his luncheon at the noon recess, with whom he walks to and from school.

1923 M. F. Egan Confessions of Bk.-Lover i. 30 The boy next door became a mirror of virtue: he was quoted to me as one whose pavement was a model to all the neighbours.

1939 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Apr. 12/3 ‘We—we became engaged down here.’ ‘Oh... So he was the boy next door.’ ‘What do you mean?’ He hesitated. ‘It's just part of a long conversation I had once with—with someone.’

1955 T. Sterling Evil of Day viii. 80 The boy-next-door parody was meant to amuse her.

1958 Photoplay Oct. 54/1 His whole build-up is based on The Boy Next Door—the boy who's within reach of every girl fan.

2003 Time Out N.Y. 28 Aug. 142 (advt.) More about what I am looking for: The fairly intelligent, ambitious, confident..apple-pie-style boy-next-door type that I can take home to meet the parents.

Compounds

C1.

a. Appositive (indicating gender, youthfulness, etc.).Some of the more established transparent compounds of this type are given separately at Compounds 1b.

ΚΠ

1570 T. Drant Two Serm. in T. F. Dibdin Library Compan. 76 This Romish Church defendeth..concubines, and boy-harlots.

1586 W. Warner Albions Eng. ii. xi. 45 Not so much as by the tongue the Boy-wench was bewraid.

1661 T. Fuller Andronicus v. viii. 89 Nuptial rites were suddenly dispatch't To a boy husband, a child wife was married, Our ages put together could not spell Thirty.

1681 J. Dryden in C. Saunders Tamerlane sig. I2 He's the first Boy-Poet of our Age.

1719 J. Richardson Two Disc. i. 95 She [sc. the Virgin Mary] is seated in Glory, encompass'd with Cherubims, Boy-Angels, and others as usually describ'd.

1762 J. Wesley Jrnl. 13 June (1827) III. 93 Two or three boy-officers.

1864 M. J. Holmes Darkness & Daylight xix. 180 I have often thought of this girl-wife and her handsome boy-husband, doubting whether I did right to marry them.

1866 W. D. Howells Venetian Life iv. 52 An Albanian boy, who..curiously impressed me, as if he were the young of some Oriental animal—say a boy-elephant, or infant camel.

1879 R. Browning Ivan Ivanovitch in Idyls I. 138 Poor Stiopka..first Of my boy-brood.

1923 E. Blunden To Nature 46 Old boy-heroes stood To catch its sparkling stonefish.

1942 R. St. John Land of Silent People vi. 135 I had been over in France in the last war, a boy crusader.

1997 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 13 July m1 Like his fellow boy-soldiers of the officer corps, John regularly received packages from home... By pooling their care packages the boy-officers were able to put together a memorable meal for John's birthday.

2002 Time Out N.Y. 26 Dec. 58/3 Harry Potter is a contemporary boy-consumer who attends what looks like a classic English boarding school for the ancient art of magic.

boy-actor n.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > actor > [noun] > boy-actor

playboy1616

boy-actor1811

1811 G. Ensor On National Educ. 274 The rage for such productions resembles the fury that seized all the idle some years ago to see the boy actor.

1861 A. K. H. Boyd Recreat. Country Parson 2nd Ser. 69 The popularity of the boy-actor Betty.

1995 Extrapolation Spring 52 A boy actor plays the role of the female Rosalind, who cross-dresses as the youth Ganymede.

boy alto n.

ΚΠ

1872 Musical Times & Singing Class Circular 15 639/1 A part-song for male voices,..in which the boy altos sang with the first tenors with excellent effect.

1967 Times 28 June 10/6 He became well known as a boy alto.

1996 R. Miller On Art of Singing iii. v. 176 He brings musicality to his ‘new’ instrument and applies some of the same basic techniques he used as a boy soprano or boy alto.

boy baby n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > baby or infant > [noun] > baby boy

boy baby1649

1649 C. Hoole Easie Entrance Lat. Tongue ii. 262/2 A boy-babie, Púpulus.

1842 Times 13 Jan. 6/2 Queen Victoria has got a boy baby!

1991 J. Gomez Psychol. & Psychiatric Probl. Men (1993) iii. 12 Boy babies are more often breast-fed and are weaned later than girls.

boy-bridegroom n.

ΘΚΠ

society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > people connected with wedding > [noun] > bridegroom > very young

boy-bridegroom1807

1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. ii, in Poems 74 The Boy-Bridegroom, shuffling in his Pace, Now hid awhile and then exposed his Face.

1907 M. Hume Court Philip IV i. 31 The little bride, smiling and happy, and her pale boy bridegroom.

1988 Harvard Jrnl. Asiatic Stud. 48 102 At the time of her arranged marriage to the then twelve-year-old boy-bridegroom.

boy child n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > child > boy > [noun]

knightc893

knapec1000

knaveOE

knape childc1175

knave-childa1225

groom?c1225

knight-bairnc1275

pagec1300

mana1382

swainc1386

knave-bairna1400

little mana1425

man-childa1438

boy1440

little boya1475

lad1535

boykin1540

tomboya1556

urchin1556

loonc1560

kinchin-co(ve)1567

big boy1572

dandiprat1582

pricket1582

boy child1584

callant1597

suck-egg1609

nacketc1618

custrel1668

hospital-boy1677

whelp1710

laddie1721

charity-boy1723

pam-child1760

chappie1822

bo1825

boyo1835

wagling1837

shirttail boy1840

boysie1846

umfaan1852

nipper1859

yob1859

fellow-my-lad?1860

laddo1870

chokra1875

shegetz1885

spalpeen1891

spadger1899

bug1900

boychick1921

sonny boy1928

sonny1939

okie1943

lightie1946

outjie1961

oke1970

1584 T. Chaloner Shorte Disc. Nitre f. 4 Dissolued in warmed water,..or else in a yonge boy childes vrine.

1850 Harper's Mag. Oct. 617/1 The boy children shall be sent to school, where they may sit during three hours consecutively.

1928 C. McKay Home to Harlem xii. 161 He had a mulatto wife and a brown boy-child in New York.

2007 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 22 Sept. (Mag.) w13 The Chinese desire for a boy child is encapsulated in a Cambodian saying.

boy-god n.

ΚΠ

1602 F. Beaumont tr. Ovid Salmacis & Hermaphroditus sig. C3^v As the boy-god was keeping on his way.

1701 N. Rowe Ambitious Step-mother iii. 42 The Boy God Laughs at my Rage.

1816 Ld. Byron Siege of Corinth xxx. 49 We kneeling see Her, and the boy-God on her knee.

1997 Classical Q. New Ser. 47 604 Two lines of Propertius,..both of which describe those who might be stricken by the boy-god's bow.

boy-king n.

ΘΚΠ

society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > sovereign ruler or monarch > king > [noun] > other types of king

folk-kingOE

boy-king1603

priest-king1606

shepherd king1744

king-emperor1789

1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 748 Most wicked men, who insolently triumphed ouer the boy king.

1798 H. Brand Huniades i. i. 16 This Boy King, the people will depose.

1907 Trans. Royal Hist. Soc. 1 260 Eager..to enjoy the favour of the boy-king, and with his favour the privilege of governing the country.

2000 Church Times 11 Aug. 14/1 It was during the boy-king's brief reign (1547–1553)..that Cranmer adopted a fully reformed view of the eucharist.

boy soprano n.

ΚΠ

1859 B. Taylor Trav. Greece & Russia xxx. 343 The sweetness and purity of the boy sopranos swelled and sank like a chorus of angels.

1923 Musical Q. 9 107 The first chorus (sopranos and boy sopranos, boy contraltos, and tenors) breathe softly.

2007 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 11 June d1 The former boy soprano was making a living belting out commercial jingles.

C2. General attributive.

ΚΠ

a1842 T. Arnold Let. in Life & Corr. T. Arnold (1844) I. iii. 161 I have had..one of those specimens of the evils of boy-nature which make me always unwilling to undergo the responsibility of advising any man to send his son to a public school.

1846 Renfrewshire Mag. Oct. 56 Oliver had finished the second year of his apprenticeship; had cast off the boy clothes and assumed the toga.

1891 ‘M. Twain’ Lett. (1917) II. 541 I confined myself to the boy-life out on the Mississippi.

1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Nov. 5/1 Of a sudden it struck into my boy-head like to grind a sack to save waste an' help my vather.

1976 F. Warner Killing Time i. i. 5 It was reported..as suicide, and they put it down to boy-trouble.

C3. Objective.

boy-queller n.

ΘΚΠ

the world > life > death > killing > killer for specific reason or type of person > [noun] > of boys

boy-queller1609

1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida v. v. 47 Come, come, thou boy-queller shew thy face.

1870 G. P. Quackenbos Spiers & Surenne's French & Eng. Pronouncing Dict. 64/1 Boy-queller, tueur, meurtrier d'enfants (màles).

1906 Daily Chron. 14 Mar. 3/3 The weapons which Mr. Bompas-Smith would put into the hands of every boy-queller are mostly old, tried ones.

1991 Shakespeare Q. 42 30 The King, no boy-queller like Alexander, soon provides decorous yet companionable fellowship.

C4.

boy band n. a young all-male pop group; spec. such a group whose music and image are designed to appeal primarily to a teenage audience.

ΚΠ

1985 Guardian 7 Nov. 11/5 Moody boy bands like The Waterboys and The Cult are making heavy records with deep lyrics for pimply adolescents with Camus peeping out of the jacket pocket.

1986 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 16 Mar. ii. 24/1 A ‘girl group’ is still singular enough to require notice. No one reviewed U2 as the latest boy band from Ireland.

1993 Newsday (Nexis) 10 Sept. 20 The boy-band from Boston is getting long in the tooth for its prime audience—the under-16 set.

1995 Face Sept. 37/3 Your average boy band generally can't wait to flee the potentially stigmatising orbit of the gay club scene.

2000 F. Walker in J. Adams et al. Girls' Night In 48 Admittedly he'd tried to kiss me, but he'd also tried to kiss two members of a boy band.

† boy-blind adj. Obsolete as lacking in foresight or percipience as a boy.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > childish folly, childishness > [adjective] > male

knightlya1000

boyish?1545

boy-blinda1640

a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Loves Pilgrimage iii. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Bbbbbbbb4/2 Put case he could be so boy-blind and foolish.

boy chap n. English regional (south-western) a young, usually unmarried, male.

ΚΠ

1872 T. Hardy Under Greenwood Tree I. iii. 116 He'd starve to death for music's sake now, as much as when he was a boy-chap of fifteen.

1939 F. Thompson Lark Rise 48 While the talking was going on, the few younger men, ‘boy-chaps’, as they were called until they were married, would not have taken a great part in it.

2004 Express & Echo (Exeter) (Nexis) 12 July 18 In the fifties, when I was a ‘boy chap’, I used to work in Exeter market.

boy choir n. a choir composed only of boys.

ΚΠ

1854 G. Burges tr. Plato Laws in Wks. V. ii. ix. 62 The boy-choir of the Muses would most correctly enter the first... Let the second be the choir (of men).

1898 Musical Times & Singing Class Circular 39 548/2 Boy choirs, mixed choirs, and quartet choirs.

1962 Morning Herald (Uniontown, Pa.) 21 Dec. 11/4 The boychoir will join the downstairs group for the singing of the antiphonal Mass.

2005 Sunday Express (Nexis) 18 Dec. 42 The trio of trebles..all sing in boy choirs.

boy-crazy adj. (esp. of a girl) extremely enthusiastic about boys (as potential romantic or sexual partners).

ΘΚΠ

the mind > emotion > love > flirtation or coquetry > [adjective] > eager to associate with boys

boy-crazy1911

1911 I. H. Gillmore Janey 44 Mrs. Morgan says that Elsa is simply impossible this summer. She's just boy-crazy.

1923 Cosmopolitan Sept. 72/2 Going boy-crazy at fifty.

2002 Time 15 Apr. 64/1 In sitcomland, Kelly would be a boy-crazy princess.

boy-cut adj. (also boy's cut, boys' cut) originally U.S. (of women's clothing) designed or tailored in a masculine style; spec. (of briefs, bikini bottoms, etc.) cut straight and low across the upper thigh to resemble snugly-fitting shorts.

ΚΠ

1956 N.Y. Times 31 Aug. 3/6 (advt.) Double-breasted boys' cut coat.

1973 Walla Walla (Washington) Union-Bull. 11 Apr. 2/6 (advt.) Girls' boy cut pants.

1976 Xenia (Ohio) Daily Gaz. 26 May (Advt. Suppl.) 2 Pc. swimsuits... Solids and prints in bikini and boy cut leg styles.

2004 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 27 July (Features section) 15 There is still many a Betty Grable-style bikini with big, boy-cut bottoms.

boy-days n. boyhood; time spent as a young boy.

ΚΠ

1823 C. Lamb in London Mag. Oct. 406/2 Remember your boy-days.

1870 Chambers's Jrnl. 22 Oct. 674/1 Replete with tender memories of the place where I had passed my boy-days.

1958 S. Selvon Turn again Tiger ii. 44 What happen, you never had boy-days? You never play head and tail before?

1991 M. Matura Coup i. i. 1 We pay tribute to the man, Edward Francis Jones, Eddie to his friends, who, by all accounts, had quite normal boydays for a young man of his ilk.

boy-farm n. now rare a school considered as a place to send unwanted boys (cf. farm n.² 6).

ΘΚΠ

society > education > place of education > school > [noun] > boys' school

boy-farm1871

1871 Amer. Bibliopolist June (Monthly Gaz. of Lit.) 2/1 Mr. Pullen considers all schools..to be mere starvation-traps and boy-farms, where the scholars ‘are at the mercy of a brute who hates them’.

1891 W. Morris News from Nowhere v. 30 I had best say nothing about the boy-farms which I had been used to call schools.

1958 K. J. Fielding C. Dickens iii. 38 He soon hit on the idea of writing about the Yorkshire schools, boyfarms where unwanted children were disposed of.

boy farmer n. (a) a boy engaged in farming; (b) a schoolmaster or headmaster (cf. boy-farm n.; rare).

ΘΚΠ

society > education > teaching > teacher > schoolteacher or schoolmaster > [noun]

schoolmasterc1225

pedagoguea1387

pedanty1573

pedanta1586

dominiea1625

Khoja1625

schoolteachera1691

knight of the grammar1692

boy farmer1869

schoolkeeper1871

faki1872

professor1880

beak1888

schoolie1889

grade teacher1906

master teacher1931

chalk-and-talker1937

sir1955

teach1958

1869 E. Kellogg (title) The boy farmers of Elm Island.

1871 H. W. Pullen Tom Pippin's Wedding i. 16 It is..much more natural for the Boy to..say whether he is treated well or ill, than for the Boy-farmer to tell the plain truth, when less than half the truth would empty his school.

1901 Daily Chron. 16 Sept. 2/6 The professional boy-farmers..are naturally trying to supply what is desired.

1940 Times 17 Jan. 4/7 It is proposed that the boy farmers should have a three months' course of training on a piece of land of 100 acres outside Portsmouth.

2006 Lloyd's List (Nexis) 24 Nov. 6 A group entitled ‘on guard’ depicting a young boy farmer patriotically informing frontier guards on the work of saboteurs.

boy genius n. †(a) extremely promising intellectual or artistic ability which is at an early stage of development (obsolete rare); (b) a precociously clever or talented boy or young man.

ΚΠ

1831 A. Cunningham in Edinb. Lit. Jrnl. 5 Feb. 102/2 Be gentle with your pen,..Be as sweet as summer's mouth,..On boy-genius gaining growth.

1846 G. Gilfillan Sketches of Mod. Lit. I. 311 He [sc. Coleridge] is chargeable..in his earlier poems with the usual splendid sins of a boy-genius, imitation and turgidity of language.

1983 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 26 July (Late City Final ed.) c11/1 ‘The Good Earth,’ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1937 film, was dedicated to Irving Thalberg, the studio's boy genius.

2003 A. Konkle in B. J. Mann Edward Albee iv. 49 He was a boy genius (earned his Master's degree in his teens).

boy-girl n. a person who combines some characteristics of both boys and girls.

ΚΠ

1741 S. Richardson Lett. Particular Friends xc. 125 A cock'd Hat, a lac'd Jacket, a Fop's Peruke, what strange Metamorphoses do they make! And then the Air assumed with them..makes, upon the whole, such a Boy-girl Figure, that [etc.].

1833 B. W. Procter Ess. & Tales in Prose 107 Bellario (a girl in disguise) addresses the King of Sicily... The young couple come in as masquers; and thus the boy-girl intercedes.

1850 New Monthly Mag. Feb. 274 This is not a little sarcastic on the part of the boy-girl, Harry Wilmington.

1956 J. W. Aldridge In Search of Heresy ii. 39 The ambivalent little boy-girls and girlboys of Capote and McCullers.

1997 J. Franceschina Homosexualities Eng. Theatre p. xi This androgyne..was able to cross-dress with impunity. Once on the stage, however,..the boy-girl challenges society.

boy-kind n. boys collectively or in general (chiefly as distinguished from mankind).

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > child > boy > [noun] > boys collectively

blush1620

boy-kind1784

boyhood1886

1784 Christmas Tale 26 Mankind and Boy-kind let this lesson reach!

1853 U.S. Rev. June 536 My poetry, in particular, he held up to the derision of mankind, or rather boy-kind.

1876 M. Collins Blacksmith & Scholar I. vi. 157 She held herself haughtily aloof from the mankind and boykind of New Bratton.

1999 Washington Post (Nexis) 30 Dec. c1 The auto show is where boykind learns yet another thing or two from mankind—we come here to dream, son.

boy leg n. and adj. originally U.S. (a) adj. (of women's briefs, bikini bottoms, etc.) cut straight and low across the upper thigh to resemble snugly-fitting shorts; cf. boy-cut adj.; (b) n. a garment cut in this style; (in plural) the legs of such a garment.

ΚΠ

1955 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 12 June a7/3 (advt.) Cotton swimsuits. Bloomer, boy leg styles.

1956 Lawton (Okla.) Constit. 28 May 3/4 (advt.) Swim suits..Bloomer leg suits. Boy legs. Half Skirts.

1997 Village Voice (N.Y.) 15 July 14/3 The old-fashioned one-piece bathing suits, with the square necks and the boy legs.

2003 S. Whiteley Too Much Too Young (2005) i. 22 Dressed in a black polka-dot bra and white boy-leg knickers.

boy-lover n. (a) a lover of boys; a pederast; (b) a boy who is a lover.

ΚΠ

1735 C. Place Reason Insufficient Guide 201 Æschylus, and Sophocles also, had a Tragedy publickly acted upon the Stage, called the (Pederastes) Boy-Lover.

1829 W. G. Simms Vision of Cortes 78 The Indian maid..stood beneath the old tree's shade. Surveying her boy-lover, as in view, He urged the arrowy prow of his canoe.

1882 Ballou's Monthly Mag. Sept. 278/2 The merry blue eyes were unchanged; her ci-devant pupil and boy-lover stood before her.

1960 Musical Times Aug. 501/1 A woman who could, if she chose, keep her boy-lover enslaved till death, but who has her great moment of renunciation.

1996 K. Maxwell Sexual Odyssey viii. 152 Tibullus..wrote an elegy in which Priapus, as the god of boy-lovers, told his worshipers how to win the affection of boys who are beautiful but cold.

boy-man n. a boy who behaves or is treated like an adult; (also) a full-grown man who retains some of the characteristics of boyhood.

ΚΠ

1616 T. Dekker Artillery Garden sig. C2 Yet all are loosers, and Victorious All, Euery Boy-man in this Infantery.

1763 J. Elphinston Education i. 5 The boy-man pities other boys at college!

1828 C. Lamb Char. Late Elia in Elia 2nd Ser. 228 He was too much of the boy-man.

1952 J. M. Brown As They Appear 33 Although he had more than the average male's courage, he remained something of a boy-man until he died at the age of forty-four.

2005 Hotdog June 108/1 He played..a boy-man who could not be counted on for anything—except, perhaps, to make the right expressions of love and honesty when they were most needed.

boy racer n. British colloquial (a) a youth or young man who enjoys driving very fast and aggressively, typically in a customized or high-performance car; (b) a car which appeals to such a person.

ΚΠ

1968 Times 27 Mar. 17/3 A lot of conversions have fallen down through total idiocy and the desire to satisfy boy racers.

1985 Times (Nexis) 25 Jan. 25/6 Some of the other changes..appear to be aimed at making the GTi more of a ‘boy racer’ than a magnificent performer hiding behind a rather discreet appearance.

2000 D. Adebayo My Once upon Time (2001) iii. 28 Make a night of it as the boy racers had taken to doing on the SW3 bridge, whirling in their customised Escorts and fat-bumpered Fiestas.

boy-rid adj. [by analogy with bedrid adj.] rare overwhelmed or surfeited with boys.

ΚΠ

1821 C. Lamb in London Mag. May 495/2 He is boy-rid, sick of perpetual boy.

1915 M. P. Willcocks Change viii. 89 They were, for the moment, without an assistant master, so that all this week he had been ‘boy-rid’.

boy shorts n. originally U.S. (in early use) short trousers as a garment for women or girls; (now chiefly) women's briefs, bikini bottoms, etc., cut low and straight on the hip (cf. boy-cut adj.); also in singular.

ΚΠ

1945 Waterloo (Iowa) Sunday Courier 1 July 11/5 (advt.) Boy shorts, pleated all around. Shorts and pedal pushers.

1974 R. Harris Decades II. iv. 85 Almost all of them wore cotton dressmaker bathing suits, the kind with boy shorts that were supposed to make heavy thighs look thin.

1991 Boston Globe (Nexis) 8 May (Living section) 73 The boy short..is a strong summer trend in bathing suit bottoms.

2005 J. L. Anderson Peaches 144 Leeda quickly stripped down too, to her silky hip-slung boy shorts.

† boy-storied adj. Obsolete rare of which stories are told by boys.

ΚΠ

1816 L. Hunt Story of Rimini ii. 235 Boy-storied trees, and love remember'd spots.

boy wonder n. colloquial an exceptionally talented young man or boy, esp. one showing a great deal of promise; cf. wonder boy at wonder n. Compounds 1a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > action or operation > ability > [noun] > ability or talent > people having talent > person having talent > very gifted person

prodigya1684

boy wonder1857

idiot savant1870

phenom1881

Wunderkind1891

superboy1907

Supergirl1912

savant1919

1857 Era 7 June 1/2 (advt.) The Royal Company of Liliputians [sic]... This unrivalled Troupe of Children... The Company consist of Master George Beckett, the Boy Wonder; [etc.].

1898 Cent. Mag. Sept. 686/2 At this time Reynolds was dead, Romney was failing, Lawrence was as yet little more than a boy wonder, so that for a short time Hoppner had matters quite his own way.

1940 Detective Comics Apr. No. 38 (cover) The sensational character-find of 1940—Robin, the Boy Wonder.

1986 N.Y. Times 31 Aug. vi. 25/2 All that might seem too downbeat for a man who still has the seductive charm and youthful vitality of an ageless boy wonder.

2001 Sunday Mirror (Electronic ed.) 30 Dec. Jari Litmanen crossed, Heskey chested the ball down and there was the Boy Wonder to fire home.

Derivatives

ˈboy-like adv. and adj.

ΘΚΠ

the world > people > person > child > boy > [adverb]

boy-like1587

1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. 433/1 The ringleader of this tumultuous rowt..hauing in his hand a drawne dagger, which he tossed from hand to hand, boy-like plaieng with it.

1591 A. Fraunce Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch Prol. sig. A3^v Lord of loue's no boy, although that he seeme to be boylike.

1600 ‘Ignoto’ in Englands Helicon sig. Z3^v Thy boy-like brags I heare.

1753 J. Hill Observ. Greek & Rom. Classics iv. 236 Boys, and boy-like critics may suppose this all the character of verse, but your Lordship will not judge so.

1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin I. ix. 132 Two boys, who, boy like, had followed close on her heels.

1937 J. P. Marquand Late George Apley vi. 62 They encountered a sudden thunder squall. Boylike, neither of them visualized the force of the gale..until it struck them suddenly with its full weight.

2006 J. Garbarino See Jane Hit viii. 203 I could..use my body in a physical way that wasn't regarded as boylike or socially inappropriate.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	boy
释义	boyn.¹int. Brit. /bɔɪ/, U.S. /bɔɪ/ Forms: Middle English bey, Middle English beye, Middle English boey, Middle English boi, Middle English boiȝe, Middle English bye, Middle English–1500s bay, Middle English–1600s boie, Middle English–1700s boye, Middle English– boy, 1500s boay, 1500s boaye, 1500s boyee, 1500s buy, 1600s buoy, 1800s– bwoy (regional); English regional 1800s buoy (south-western), 2000s– boay (Cornwall); Scottish pre-1700 boye, pre-1700 1700s– boy, 1900s– beuy (Orkney), 1900s– boay; also Irish English 1800s buye (Wexford), 1800s bye (Wexford), 1900s– bhoy (northern); also Manx English 1700s boch, 1900s– boh; also Welsh English 1900s– ba, 1900s– booi. Origin: Of uncertain origin. Etymology: Origin uncertain, as is the early development of the word.The meanings ‘male servant’ (sense A. 1a) and ‘churl’ (sense A. 2) are found from an early date, as are pejorative uses of the latter sense as a term of abuse (albeit perhaps sometimes with affectionate overtones). The meaning ‘male child or youth’ apparently emerged considerably later, probably as a development from pejorative uses in the sense ‘churl’. For a detailed analysis of Middle English examples see E. J. Dobson ‘The etymology and meaning of boy’ in Medium Ævum 9 (1940) 121–54. Various earlier examples of sense A. 3a have been suggested, but are uncertain. The following example in particular could perhaps be interpreted as showing this sense, but (as argued by Dobson) the context probably instead suggests either a weakened, colloquial use of sense A. 2 or a deliberately insulting use of this sense:c1410 (c1350) Gamelyn (Harl. 7334) l. 230 Whil þou were a ȝong boy, a moche schrewe þou were. The word is perhaps attested earlier as a byname and surname: compare Fil. Roberti litelboie (?1205–6), Willelmi Godeboye (1269), etc., and also Aluuinus boi (1086), Will. boie (1154), Will. Boie (1175), Alanus Boye (1198), etc., although the latter group in particular are open to different interpretations. In the Old English period a personal name (perhaps of continental rather than native origin) Boia is also found, but it is very uncertain whether this has any direct connection with the present word. On some possible occurrences in place names (perhaps from as early as the 8th cent., although the documentation is much later) compare discussion in Vocab. Eng. Place-names at boia, although compare also the difficulties of interpretation mentioned there. (However, for a detailed analysis of the name evidence which does conclude that there is a link with the present word see K. Dietz ‘Mittelenglisch oi in heimischen Ortsnamen und Personennamen’ in Beiträge zur Namenforschung 16 (1981) 361–405.) Etymologies of the word have been suggested on the basis either that the word is a borrowing < French (in which case any connection with pre-Conquest name evidence is generally rejected), or that it is of Germanic origin, either as a native Old English word or as a borrowing (in which case at least some of the name evidence is usually held to be connected). The suggested French etymology which has been taken up most widely (proposed by E. J. Dobson in Medium Ævum 9 (1940) 121–54 and Medium Ævum 12 (1943) 71–6) connects the word with Anglo-Norman boie boy n.², in Dobson's account via an (unrecorded) shortened variant (by aphaeresis) of emboié , embuié , enbué , enbuié , anbué (adjective) fettered, (noun) person in chains (12th cent.), spec. uses of the past participle of the derivative verb embuier to put in fetters. Such an origin would account well for the variation shown by the English word, and also gives an entirely plausible explanation of the sense ‘male servant’. (It has been objected that such aphaeresis is not common in Anglo-Norman, although if so it seems possible that the English word could be more directly connected with the simplex Anglo-Norman boie . For an overview of other comments critical of this theory, and for summary of other etymological suggestions, see A. Liberman ‘The etymology of English boy, beacon, and buoy’ in American Journal of Germanic Linguistics & Literatures 12 (2000) 201–34.) An alternative French etymology has been suggested < Old French boiasse, rare variant (13th cent.) of Anglo-Norman baisse , baiesse , baasse , baesse , beiesse and Old French baiasse , baiasse female servant (c1200; probably < an unattested form bacassa ), on the assumption that (either in French or in English) the ending -asse* was interpreted as showing the feminine suffix -esse -ess suffix¹, hence giving rise by analogy to a masculine form boie . This suggestion is weakened by the fact that there is no secure evidence either for the masculine form in French or for the feminine form in English, and also that the form boiasse is apparently not attested in Anglo-Norman. (For advocacy of this suggestion see B. Diensberg ‘The etymology of modern English boy: a new hypothesis’ in Medium Ævum 50 (1981) 79–87.) The resemblance is perhaps purely coincidental to Middle Dutch boye , boije , boy , boeije , boey , boe , boye (especially female) servant, term of familiar address (especially to a woman) (late 14th cent.; Dutch booi ), which probably shows a variant of bode messenger, male or female servant (see bode n.¹): see discussion in E. J. Dobson ‘Middle English and Middle Dutch boye’ in Medium Ævum 12 (1943) 71–6. Compare (probably < Dutch) West Frisian boi , German regional (Low German) boi , boy boy, young man. However, for a differing interpretation of this material see K. Roelandts ‘De etymologie van Fries boai, Engels boy en Middelnederlands boye’ in N. R. Århammar et al. Miscellanea Frisica (1984) 123–36, suggesting an origin for all of these forms in familiar (perhaps nursery) forms of brother n. or its cognates, in which connection perhaps compare German Bube and (apparently) related forms. A. n.¹ 1. a. A male servant, slave, assistant, junior employee, etc.Often with implication of relative youth, and hence not readily distinguishable from senses A. 3a and A. 3c.Frequently as the second element in compounds, as house-boy, link-boy, office boy, post boy, pot-boy, etc.: for established compounds see the first element. (a) In general use. Now rare except in some former British colonies. ΘΚΠ society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > slave theowc893 thrallc950 young manOE slavec1290 boyc1300 servanta1325 bondc1330 bondmana1340 manciplea1387 man's-bond?a1400 thrillc1480 thrillmanc1480 serf1483 bondservant1535 bondslave1561 bondling1587 slave-boy1607 slave-labourer1607 chattel1649 bondsman1713 livestock1755 esne1819 thirl-man1871 task-labourer1897 c1300 (?c1225) King Horn (Cambr.) (1901) l. 1075 (MED) He com to þe gateward þat him answerede hard..þe boye [c1300 Laud, a1350 Harl. porter] hit scholde abugge; Horn þreu him ouer þe brigge. c1330 in T. Wright Polit. Songs Eng. (1839) 341 (MED) A boy for to bere a lettre. a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) l. 1705 Sche..borwed boiȝes cloþes..& bogeysliche as a boye, busked to þe kychene. a1439 J. Lydgate Fall of Princes (Bodl. 263) ii. l. 1033 With his suerd[e], but she [sc. Lucretia] wolde assent, Hire and a boy he wolde prente ifeer. c1440 (?a1400) Morte Arthure l. 3122 Boyes in þe subarbis bourden full heghe. 1480 G. Cely Let. 24 Nov. in Cely Lett. (1975) 102 Ytt ys so that Y do send Harry my boye to whayght appon my brodyr this Crystmesse. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) 1 Sam. ii. 13 The prestes boye came, whyle the flesh was seething. 1601 F. Tate Househ. Ord. Edward II (1876) §94. 56 That none of the kings meignee..charetter or sompter boy..keepe his wife at the court. 1651 T. L. To Church of Rome in Πολύπενϑεος Θρηνωδία 9 By David his Boy, whom his heart approved. 1675 Char. Town Misse 6 And now being arrived at the Zenith of her Glory, she has her Boys in Livery, her House splendidly furnisht, and scorns to stir abroad without a Coach and six. 1721 P. Aubin Life Madam de Beaumount ii. 36 I resolved to continue in the Cave, with my two Servants, my Maid, and a Boy, whom I had brought from France. 1764 T. Jefferson Corr. in Wks. (1859) I. 190 You mention one [letter] you wrote last Friday, and sent by the Secretary's boy. 1860 Amer. Law Reg. 8 567 Witness says that he heard nothing more of them, except that a boy was sent down for liquor, and witness had to get bar-checks for the boy. 1912 E. Wharton Reef (1914) 199 Darrow..saw the doctor's old-fashioned carriage by the roadside. ‘Let me tell the doctor's boy to drive you back,’ he suggested. 1939 Fortune Oct. 80/1 Twenty-one years ago President W. Warren Humphrey..started as a stock-room boy. a1961 E. Hemingway Garden of Eden (1987) iv. xxviii. 233 ‘Immediately after Monsieur and Madame left,’ Madame Aurol said. ‘She sent the boy to the station for the ticket and to reserve a wagon-lit.’ 1971 R. Russell tr. A. Ahmad Shore & Wave xv. 161 Boy, three chhota pegs. 1973 T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 37 ‘Why does he go out and pinch all his dogs in person? He's an administrator, isn't he? Wouldn't he hire a boy or something?’ ‘We call them “staff”,’ Roger replies. 2002 H. Igboanusi Dict. Nigerian Eng. Usage 65 I have been staying in my bookshop since this year because my boys have become very dishonest. (b) Used (chiefly by white people) with reference to non-white slaves and (in English-speaking colonies) to non-white servants, labourers, etc. Also as a form of address (esp. as a summons). Now historical and rare (usually considered offensive). ΘΚΠ society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > Indian or Chinese boy1625 society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > black black boy1594 boy1625 Cape boy1892 Stepin Fetchit1940 society > authority > subjection > slavery or bondage > [noun] > slave > black jong1615 servant1643 New Negro1701 salt-water Negro1708 boy1796 blackbird1853 intelligent contraband1861 contraband1862 1625 W. Hawkins in S. Purchas Pilgrimes I. iii. vii. 211 My Boy Stephen Grauener. 1628 World Encompassed by Sir F. Drake 55 We met a Spaniard with an Indian boy, driving 8. Lambes or Peruvian sheepe. 1681 R. Knox Hist. Relation Ceylon 124 We had a black boy my Father brought from Porta Nova to attend upon him. 1722 D. Defoe Moll Flanders 357 About two Hours after he was gone, he sent me a Maid-Servant, and a Negro Boy to wait on me. 1796 tr. A. von Kotzebue Negro Slaves i. v. 22 You are an old boy, I suppose you was sold for a couple of yards of linen, and some bottles of brandy. ?1796 Periodical Accts. Missions Church United Brethren 1 274 Baas Teunis having left a draught of oxen here at pasture in coming to the town, they were now put to the waggon, and the former driven behind us by a Hottentot boy. 1812 A. Plumptre tr. H. Lichtenstein Trav. S. Afr. I. i. viii. 119 A Hottentot..expects to be called by his name if addressed by any one who knows it; and by those to whom it is not known he expects to be called Hottentot..or boy. 1834 E. Markham N.Z. Recoll. (1963) 72 They picked out two of the strongest of the Boys (as they call the Men) about the place. 1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin II. xxx. 166 ‘Now up with you, boy! d'ye hear?’ said the auctioneer to Tom. 1876 E. Thorne Queen of Colonies 58 The blacks who work on a station or farm are always, like the blacks in the Southern States, called boys. 1907 N.Y. Evening Post (Semi-weekly ed.) 13 May 6 The register clerk [at a Shanghai hotel] assigns you to a room, and instead of ‘Front!’ he shouts ‘Boy!’ 1943 D. Welch Maiden Voy. xviii. 145 I noticed that everything was covered with a fine, sandy dust. I thought that the coolies and Boys must be very lazy. 1960 Northern Territory News (Darwin) 5 Feb. 5/5 Aborigine Wally..described himself as ‘number one boy’ at the station. 2000 New Straits Times (Malaysia) (Nexis) 8 Oct. 12 Proudlock was acting headmaster of the Victoria Institution, and..they had three servants—‘boy’, ayah and cook. †b. A male civilian informally attached to an encamped or travelling body of soldiers; a camp follower. Obsolete. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > warrior > camp follower > [noun] rascal1539 lackey1556 boy1572 soldier's boy1611 camper1631 lix1665 retainer1784 camp-follower1810 1572 J. Sadler tr. Vegetius Foure Bks. Martiall Policye iii. vii. f. 32^v If any water be rough and boysterous, or the chanell verye broade, it manye times drowneth the carriages and the boyes and nowe and then slouthfull and lyther souldiours. 1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V iv. vii. 1 Godes plud kil the boyes and the lugyge, Tis the arrants peece of knauery. a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iv. iv. 72 The French might haue a good pray of vs, if he knew of it, for there is none to guard it [sc. the luggage] but boyes . View more context for this quotation 1647 C. Cotterell & W. Aylesbury tr. E. C. Davila Hist. Civill Warres France iv. 245 With the same readinesse the Admirall following and all the chief Officers of the Army, and from hand to hand the Gentlemen, with the common souldiers, and even the footmen and boyes in the Camp, they made up the Sum of 30000 crowns. c. A non-white male. Now usually considered offensive (as being associated with sense A. 1a(b)). ΚΠ 1821 E. S. Pigot Jrnl. 45 in Dict. S. Afr. Eng. on Hist. Princ. (1996) 124/3 The Bush boy took off all the gentlemen; we danced more, then he took off the Ladies, made us laugh very much. 1864 Lady Duff-Gordon in F. Galton Vacation Tourists & Trav. 1862–3 215 Yes, madam, it is shocking here how people treat the blacks. They call quite an old man ‘boy’, and speak so scornfully. 1888 L. D. Powles Land of Pink Pearl 66 Every darky, however old, is a boy. 1952 Here & Now (N.Z.) Jan. 21 ‘D'ere d'hino,’ said the Maori boy at the pool table. 1973 Black Panther 8 Sept. 7/2 Guards [in Alabama] still use the term ‘boy’ to refer to Black prisoners. 1992 Weekly Mail (Johannesburg) 24 Apr. 32 Some of the correspondents who helped him with bursaries referred to him as a ‘boy’... ‘That was a different era.’ d. A junior military rank in various forces; a person of this rank. Now historical. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > airman > [noun] > boy boy1841 1841 Times 6 May 5/4 Wounded... Lieutenant Bowers, severely. 1 Boy, 1st class, severely. 1918 Army Orders Nov. 35 The following additional column will be inserted in the table of corresponding ranks..Royal Air Force..Air Mechanic, 3rd Class. Private, 2nd Class. Clerk, 3rd Class. Boy. 1924 R.A.F. King's Regulations I. p. vii Airman, or Airmen. These words, wherever they occur, will be held to include a warrant officer, a N.C.O., an aircraftman, and a boy. 1947 Jrnl. Royal Statist. Soc. 110 34 We have Rating Group 3, much the largest in the Navy, and consisting of Able Seaman, Ordinary Seaman, Boy 1st Class and Boy 2nd Class. 1963 Times 30 Apr. 16/2 He joined the Navy as a boy second class in 1898. 1996 T. Copp & R. Nielsen No Price Too High i. 34/2 Then battle dress was issued. There were three of us with the rank of boy in the unit and we were the last to get it. †2. A male person of low birth or status; (as a general term of contempt or abuse) a worthless fellow, a knave, a rogue, a wretch. Obsolete.Sometimes overlapping with sense A. 3c. ΘΚΠ the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > roguery > rogue > [noun] harlot?c1225 truantc1290 shreward1297 boyc1300 lidderon13.. cokinc1330 pautenerc1330 bribera1387 bricouna1400 losarda1400 rascal?a1400 custronc1400 knapea1450 sloven?a1475 limmerc1485 knavatec1506 smaik?1507 smy?1507 koken?a1513 swinger1513 Cock Lorel?1518 pedlar's French1530 varletc1540 losthope?c1550 makeshift1554 wild rogue1567 miligant1568 rogue1568 crack-halter1573 rascallion1582 schelm1584 scoundrel1589 scaba1592 bezonian1592 slave1592 rampallion1593 Scanderbeg1601 roly-poly1602 canter1608 cantler1611 gue1612 fraudsman1613 Cathayana1616 crack-hempa1616 foiterer1616 tilt1620 picaro1622 picaroon1629 sheepmanc1640 rapscallion1648 scaramouch1677 fripon1691 trickster1711 shake-bag1794 sinner1809 cad1838 badmash1843 scattermouch1892 jazzbo1914 society > morality > moral evil > wickedness > roguery, knavery, or rascalry > [noun] > rogue, knave, or rascal harlot?c1225 knavec1275 truantc1290 shreward1297 boinarda1300 boyc1300 lidderon13.. cokinc1330 pautenerc1330 bribera1387 bricouna1400 losarda1400 rascal?a1400 knapea1450 lotterela1450 limmerc1485 Tutivillus1498 knavatec1506 smy?1507 koken?a1513 swinger1513 Cock Lorel?1518 pedlar's French1530 cust1535 rabiator1535 varletc1540 Jack1548 kern1556 wild rogue1567 miligant1568 rogue1568 tutiviller1568 rascallion1582 schelm1584 scoundrel1589 rampallion1593 Scanderbeg1601 scroyle1602 canter1608 cantler1611 skelm1611 gue1612 Cathayana1616 foiterer1616 tilt1620 picaro1622 picaroon1629 sheepmanc1640 rapscallion1648 marrow1656 Algerine1671 scaramouch1677 fripon1691 shake-bag1794 badling1825 tiger1827 two-for-his-heels1837 ral1846 skeezicks1850 nut1882 gun1890 scattermouch1892 tug1896 natkhat1901 jazzbo1914 scutter1940 bar steward1945 hoor1965 c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) l. 1899 (MED) Þer mithe men wel se boyes bete..And hauelok on hem wel wreke. c1330 in T. Wright Polit. Songs Eng. (1839) 335 (MED) Knihtshipe is acloied..Kunne a boy nu breke a spere, he shal be mad a kniht. And thus ben knihtes gadered of unkinde blod. c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) l. 1217 Was nowt þe boi of wit bireued. c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Friar's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 22 An Erchedekne..hadde a Somnour, redy to his hond. A slyer boy, nas noon in Engelond..To telle his harlotrye, I wol nat spare. c1410 (c1350) Gamelyn (Harl. 7334) l. 488 (MED) It is moche skaþe, boy, þat þou art on lyue! a1450 York Plays (1885) 257 Sir knyghtys, do kepe þis boy [sc. Peter] in bande. ?a1475 Ludus Coventriae (1922) 227 (MED) Þus a bey to a jentylman to make comparycion. 1562 W. Bullein Bk. Simples f. 76, in Bulwarke of Defence Through a very vile coward or boie, often the valiaunt man is slaine. 1588 ‘M. Marprelate’ Oh read ouer D. Iohn Bridges: Epist. 30 Calling him boy, knaue, varlet, slanderer. a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) v. vi. 103 Auf. Name not the God, thou boy of Teares... Corio. Measurelesse Lyar, thou hast made my heart Too great for what containes it. Boy? Oh Slaue. 1683 in Notes & Queries (1854) 1st Ser. 9 15/2 A sort of vicious idle and masterless boyes and rogues commonly called the Black~guard..do usually haunt and follow the Court. 3. a. A male child or youth. Also: a son, irrespective of age (chiefly as referred to by members of the immediate family).Sometimes restricted to male children below the age of puberty, or below the school-leaving age. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > young person > youth or young man > [noun] frumberdlingc1000 young manOE childc1225 hind1297 pagec1300 youtha1325 fawnc1369 swainc1386 stripling1398 boy1440 springaldc1450 jovencel1490 younkera1522 speara1529 gorrel1530 lad1535 hobbledehoy1540 cockerel1547 waga1556 spring1559 loonc1560 hensure1568 youngster1577 imp1578 pigsney1581 cocklinga1586 demy1589 muchacho1591 shaver1592 snipper-snappera1593 callant1597 spaught1598 stubble boy1598 ghillie1603 codling1612 cuba1616 skippera1616 man-boy1637 sprig1646 callow1651 halflang1660 stubbed boy1683 gossoon1684 gilpie1718 stirraha1722 young lion1792 halfling1794 pubescent1795 young man1810 sixteener1824 señorito1843 tad1845 boysie1846 shaveling1854 ephebe1880 boychick1921 lightie1946 young blood1967 studmuffin1986 the world > people > person > child > boy > [noun] knightc893 knapec1000 knaveOE knape childc1175 knave-childa1225 groom?c1225 knight-bairnc1275 pagec1300 mana1382 swainc1386 knave-bairna1400 little mana1425 man-childa1438 boy1440 little boya1475 lad1535 boykin1540 tomboya1556 urchin1556 loonc1560 kinchin-co(ve)1567 big boy1572 dandiprat1582 pricket1582 boy child1584 callant1597 suck-egg1609 nacketc1618 custrel1668 hospital-boy1677 whelp1710 laddie1721 charity-boy1723 pam-child1760 chappie1822 bo1825 boyo1835 wagling1837 shirttail boy1840 boysie1846 umfaan1852 nipper1859 yob1859 fellow-my-lad?1860 laddo1870 chokra1875 shegetz1885 spalpeen1891 spadger1899 bug1900 boychick1921 sonny boy1928 sonny1939 okie1943 lightie1946 outjie1961 oke1970 Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 35 (MED) Bye or boye: Bostio. a1475 Friar & Boy (Brogyntyn) in J. O. Halliwell Early Eng. Misc. (1855) 48 ‘To the fylde schalle go the chyld’..Furthe than went the lytelle boy. c1475 Wisdom (Folger) (1969) 65 (stage direct.) (MED) Here rennyt owt..vi small boys. 1535 Bible (Coverdale) Zech. viii. 5 The stretes of the citie shalbe full of yonge boyes and damselles [1382 Wyclif infauntes and maydens; 1388 yonge children and maidens; 1611 boyes and girles]. ?1548 J. Bale Comedy Thre Lawes Nature iii. sig. Cvij^v Come, axe me blessynge, lyke praty boyes apace. 1549 in W. Greenwell Wills & Inventories Registry Durham (1860) II. 132 I give vnto my wife my house vnto my boy be of xxiiij yeirs of age. 1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 56 This boye who was made ouerseer of them, was commonly twenty yeres of age. 1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost iv. i. 119 When King Pippen of Frannce was a litle boy . View more context for this quotation 1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler ii. 46 The very boyes will learn to talk and swear. View more context for this quotation 1671 J. Sharp Midwives Bk. v. i. 233 A woman delivered of a Boy, must continue in her purification thirty three dayes, and for a girl sixty six days. 1711 J. Swift Jrnl. to Stella 7 Mar. (1948) I. 208 I find I was mistaken in the sex, 'tis a boy. 1752 S. Johnson Rambler No. 198. ⁋3 The sailor hated to see tall boys shut up in a school. 1812 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Cantos I & II ii. xxiii. 72 Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy? 1844 A. B. Welby Poems (1867) 97 A noble sturdy boy is he, and yet he's only five. 1866 S. B. Warner Word I. xvii. 219 Driven from home, her boy put out of his birthright, disowned and disgraced, she felt no doubt very forlorn. 1908 R. Brooke Poet. Wks. (1970) 155 The thing must End. I am no boy! I am No boy!! being twenty-one. 1945 E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited i. i. 27 That..was Lord Sebastian Flyte. A most amusing young gentleman... The Marquis of Marchmain's second boy. 1989 M. Dorris Broken Cord iv. 65 I continually struggled to understand my little boy as he grew older. 2007 Voice 16 Apr. 30/2 I honestly do feel that my boys are missing out big time on that father figure. b. colloquial. In expressions of encouragement, admiration, etc. Esp. in that's my boy, that's the boy (see that pron.¹ 1b(a)).In quot. 1575 addressed to a dog. ΚΠ 1575 G. Gascoigne Noble Arte Venerie xxxix. 107 If he perceiue that his hounde draw right, let him clappe him on the side & cherish him, saying, Thats my boy, thats he, thats he. 1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. i. 109 I thats my boy, thy father hath full oft, For his vngratefull Countrie done the like. View more context for this quotation a1625 J. Fletcher Bonduca iv. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) 62 That's my boy, my sweet boy. 1715 H. Carey Contrivances 25 Boy. I pick'd it out of my Master's Coat-Pocket, Sir, this Morning... Rove. That's my Boy—there, there's Mony for you. 1829 W. N. Glascock Sailors & Saints I. 212 ‘That's the boy!’ cried the boatswain's-mate, who..was as rank a fatalist as most of his superstitious profession—‘that's the boy, that always brings the luck.’ 1831 J. Hardiman Irish Minstrelsy 79 They cry he's the boy, our darling and joy, Still ready to sport, or to court, or to toy. 1884 Catholic World Dec. 417 ‘That's the boy, Tom,’ said Larry Jot approvingly; ‘you're able to take care of 'em like a man.’ 1902 J. J. Bell Wee Macgreegor ii. 13 ‘If a beast wis gaun fur to pu' ma heid aff,’ remarked Macgregor, who had grown suddenly bold, ‘I-I-I wud—I wud gi'e't a kick!’ ‘Ye're the boy!’ said his father. 1932 E. Wallace When Gangs came to London ii. 26 ‘Ain't you the boy!’ he said. 1962 H. Hood in R. Weaver Canad. Short Stories (1968) 2nd Ser. 205 John's the boy. Oh, he's a sharp lad is John. 1992 P. McCabe Butcher Boy (1993) 62 Right come on up here Philip and show the class. That's the boy. Good lad Philip. Watch carefully now everyone. c. In playful, affectionate, or slighting use: a young man, a fellow. Also as a form of address.Also as the second element in compounds (in many of which the suggestion of youth has largely or entirely disappeared), as city, golden, lover, nature, wide boy, etc.: see the first element.For earlier similar affectionate use to a horse see quot. c1405 at sense A. 4b. ΚΠ 1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Apr. 155 Ah foolish boy, that is with loue yblent. 1599 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet iii. i. 130 Thou wretched boy that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence. View more context for this quotation 1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing v. i. 79 If thou kilst me, boy, thou shalt kill a man. View more context for this quotation 1722 Daily Post 19 Mar. He is a fat, chubby boy, aged about 20 or thereabouts. a1791 J. Wesley Serm. lxxxiii, in Wks. (1811) IX. 434 Every one has his hobby-horse! Something that pleases the great boy for a few hours. 1863 C. Reade Hard Cash III. iii. 90 I love you with all my soul, Alfred; I worship the ground you walk on, my sweet, sweet boy. 1883 R. Broughton Belinda I. i. i. 46 Rivers looks at her; looks at her as a wholesome minded and bodied boy of twenty-two does look at his first love. 1893 O. Wilde Let. ?Jan. (1962) 326 My Own Boy, Your sonnet is quite lovely. 1934 ‘N. West’ Cool Million xix. 135 Listen, boy,..see this gat? Well, if you don't behave I'll drill you clean. 1989 Washington Post (Nexis) 15 July a19 A world in which women have the power to dictate what toys the boys will buy to assert their manhood. 2001 L. Rennison Knocked out by Nunga-nungas 119 Yesssssss! Owzat!!!!!!! The boy's a genius! d. A man, without connotation of age. Now chiefly regional except as the second element of compounds.Sometimes used spec. of unmarried men still living in their parents' home.Cf. backroom boy at back room n. b, cowboy n. 2b, good old boy n. at good adj., n., adv., and int. Compounds 1c, old boy n., wide boy n. at wide adj. Compounds 2. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > man > [noun] churla800 werec900 rinkeOE wapmanc950 heOE wyeOE gomeOE ledeOE seggeOE shalkOE manOE carmanlOE mother bairnc1225 hemea1250 mother sona1250 hind1297 buck1303 mister mana1325 piecec1325 groomc1330 man of mouldc1330 hathela1350 sire1362 malea1382 fellowa1393 guestc1394 sergeant?a1400 tailarda1400 tulka1400 harlotc1405 mother's sona1470 frekea1475 her1488 masculinea1500 gentlemana1513 horse?a1513 mutton?a1513 merchant1549 child1551 dick1553 sorrya1555 knavea1556 dandiprat1556 cove1567 rat1571 manling1573 bird1575 stone-horse1580 loona1586 shaver1592 slave1592 copemate1593 tit1594 dog1597 hima1599 prick1598 dingle-dangle1605 jade1608 dildoa1616 Roger1631 Johnny1648 boy1651 cod1653 cully1676 son of a bitch1697 cull1698 feller1699 chap1704 buff1708 son of a gun1708 buffer1749 codger1750 Mr1753 he-man1758 fella1778 gilla1790 gloak1795 joker1811 gory1819 covey1821 chappie1822 Charley1825 hombre1832 brother-man1839 rooster1840 blokie1841 hoss1843 Joe1846 guy1847 plug1848 chal1851 rye1851 omee1859 bloke1861 guffin1862 gadgie1865 mug1865 kerel1873 stiff1882 snoozer1884 geezer1885 josser1886 dude1895 gazabo1896 jasper1896 prairie dog1897 sport1897 crow-eater1899 papa1903 gink1906 stud1909 scout1912 head1913 beezer1914 jeff1917 pisser1918 bimbo1919 bozo1920 gee1921 mush1936 rye mush1936 basher1942 okie1943 mugger1945 cat1946 ou1949 tess1952 oke1970 bra1974 muzhik1993 1651 W. Davenant Gondibert ii. iii. 102 Gondibert (to whom the Court must bow, Now War is with your Fav'rite overthrown) Will by his Camp of Boys at Bergamo, Wed her, who to your Valour ows the Crown. 1663 T. Jordan Royal Arbor Loyal Poesie 6 Cornish boyes be bold, Never lose your hold, He that loiters, Is by Traytors Basely bought and sold. 1745 J. Swift Dick's Variety in Misc. X. 230 Let the Boys pelt him if they dare. 1754 Sons of Ireland 9 His exit will be with his neck in a loop, Surrounded with brave Newrey boys in a troop. 1834 Universal Songster I. 10/2 No wonder that we Irish boys should be so gay and frisky. 1847 Paddiana I. 263 Judge Moore having decided in my hearing, that in Ireland the word ‘Boy’ has no reference to age. 1863 J. Moreton Life & Work in Newfoundland 9 The ‘boys’ in a fisherman's household are all the males, of whatever age, except the father or master. 1867 W. H. Dixon New Amer. i These Western boys (every man living beyond the Missouri is a Boy, just as every woman is a Lady). 1880 M. A. Courtney W. Cornwall Words in M. A. Courtney & T. Q. Couch Gloss. Words Cornwall 6/1 There are no men in Cornwall; they are all Cornish boys. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 16 Oct. 11/2 In Ireland anyone who is not married is called a boy... John Gillan, the ‘boy’, a sturdy young man, then gave evidence. 1911 A. Warrack Scots Dial. Dict. Boy, a male person of any age or condition, if unmarried and residing in the family home. 1971 G. J. Casey Traditions & Neighbourhoods 168 Joey was no coward, but he was no Irish boy. 1985 L. Lochhead tr. Molière Tartuffe 26 This boay couldny love you mair. He's fairly burnin' tae be yir man. 2004 Irish Times (Nexis) 26 Jan. 17 I am told that the Duke of Devonshire and his wife were charmed at being thanked by a woman in a fishing-tackle shop: ‘Thanks, your grace, Mrs Devonshire. Good luck with the fishin', boy, and you too, girl.’ 2005 J. Aitken Porridge & Passion xi. 161 ‘I thought I recognized a Suffolk accent.’ ‘Well you're roight boy,’ said the Principal Officer relapsing into broad Suffolk. e. Appended to a male forename (esp. as a form of address). ΚΠ 1728 I. Dandridge Like will to Like I. xii. 27 Ah dear Billy-boy, There wou'd be Days for you and I! 1889 B. Harte Cressy xiii. 278 ‘What is it, Johnny boy?’ asked the master tenderly. 1909 W. A. White Certain Rich Man xvi. 220 He's too many for me—that Johnny boy is. I can't make him out. 1978 J. McGahern Getting Through 128 Rise it, Jimmy. More power to your elbow, Jimmy Boy! 1989 T. Clancy Clear & Present Danger viii. 136 Can you still cut it, Johnny boy? 2008 Gold Coast Bull. (Austral.) (Nexis) 3 Jan. Davey boy, your time was the result of your choices. 4. a. As a familiar form of address to a man.Formerly often with my, dear, old (see also old boy n. 1); this usage is now generally considered old-fashioned or upper-class. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > terms of endearment > [noun] > familiar form of address mon amic1425 matec1500 boy1532 old lad1594 old boy1602 captaina1616 mon cher1673 old chap1823 old man1828 ou maat1838 boysie1846 old top1856 boetie1867 bra1869 cocker1888 mon vieux1888 face1891 yessir1892 George1903 old sport1905 old bean1917 segotia1917 babe1918 bro1918 tovarish1918 old egg1919 midear1921 old (tin of) fruit1923 sport1923 mush1936 cowboy1961 coz1961 wack1963 yaar1963 John1982 1532 Remedy of Love in Wks. G. Chaucer f. ccclxv If the yonge man speke, anon he saythe boye To rebuke age, besemeth the not ywis. 1565 A. Golding tr. Ovid Fyrst Fower Bks. Metamorphosis iii. f. 10^v Feare not my boy (the Patrone sayd) no more but tell me where Thou doost desyre too go a lande. 1584 G. Peele Araygnem. Paris iii. v. p. i My boy, I will instruct thee in a peece of poetrie, That happly erst thou hast not heard. a1616 W. Shakespeare Twelfth Night (1623) ii. iv. 119 But di'de thy sister of her loue my Boy ? View more context for this quotation a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) ii. ii. 53 To sea, boys, and let her goe hang. View more context for this quotation 1703 E. Ward Secret Hist. Calves-head Club 15 Then Boys let's drink a Bumper, since their Actions made us great. 1726 C. Johnson Female Fortune-teller iv. 64 Sir Cha. How came you to act? Ring. Bagatelle, my dear Boy, no more Examination. 1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker III. 154 Well done, my dear boy!—O bravo! 1823 W. Scott St. Ronan's Well I. xiii. 300 I will have no objection in life to take Mr Tyrrel's place, and serve your occasion, my boy! 1895 S. Crane Red Badge of Courage xxi ‘A feller named Wilson,’ he ses. There, Wilson, m'boy, put that in a letter an' send it hum t' yer mother, hay? 1938 F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad xix. 209 ‘Here they are, boys; get your tools ready.’.. As they ran they pulled weapons from under their coats. 1948 E. Waugh Loved One 3 They don't expect you to listen. Always remember that, dear boy. 1969 ‘M. Innes’ Family Affair x. 117 Come into my den, my dear boy. I've one or two things that ought to interest you. 2001 N. Weinstock As long as she needs Me 18 Yeegads. Agents are vultures, my boy. b. As a familiar form of address to a male dog. Cf. quot. 1575 at sense A. 3b. ΚΠ c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Friar's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 263 That was wel twight myn owene lyard boy... Now is my Cart out of the slow pardee.] 1829 Cambrian Q. Mag. 1 369 Thou hast lost thy master, but I will find thee a new one: here, boy, here! 1844 S. Lover Treasure Trove 348 ‘Turlough! Turlough!—here boy!’ He began to talk to the dog in his own peculiar style. 1967 Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times 30 June 11/2 Go get it, boy, Harry, don't sit there and scratch. 1985 K. Fulves Self-working Paper Magic 72 I say the magic words ‘Fetch, boy’. 2007 Guardian (Nexis) 30 Oct. 31 Fido! Din dins! Here boy! 5. In plural. With reference to various bodies or loose associations of (young) men. a. With preceding defining word or phrase. (a) In the name of a particular gang or band. Also in singular: a member of such a gang.For established compounds, as Oakboy, Peep o' Day Boys, Roaring Boys, wren-boys, etc., see the first element. ΘΚΠ society > law > rule of law > lawlessness > [noun] > crime > a criminal or law-breaker > collectively St Giles1714 boy1834 felonry1837 1614 J. Cooke Greenes Tu Quoque sig. C3 This is no angry, nor no roaring boy, but a blustering boy. 1616 B. Jonson Epicœne i. iv, in Wks. I. 537 The doubtfulnesse o' your phrase,..would breed you a quarrell, once an houre, with the terrible boyes . View more context for this quotation 1744 D. Horsmanden Jrnl. in N.Y. Conspiracy (1971) 82 It seems that..the confederates in each [district] were distinguished by the denomination of the Fly Boys and the Long Bridge Boys. 1772 London Chron. 18–21 Apr. 378/1 The Steel Boys came and fired into the house. 1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus iii. x. 100/2 In Ireland..Ribbonmen, Cottiers, Peep-of-day Boys. 1927 Amer. Mercury Nov. 360/1 Streets over whose cobblestones the carriages of the aristocrats had rolled became nests of dives which sheltered the members of such celebrated river gangs as the Daybreak Boys. 1990 Toronto Star (Nexis) 4 Feb. a1 The bawdy house was run by a gang called the Dai Huen Jai, or the Big Circle Boys, a crime organization that started in mainland China at the turn of the century. 2001 Observer 18 Mar. (Britain Uncovered Suppl.) 58/3 The school became known as a recruiting ground for local gangs: the Brixton Boys, the Dulwich Crew and, more lately, the YPB (Young Peckham Boys). (b) colloquial. More generally: men of the kind indicated by the defining element.backroom boys: see back room n. b. ΚΠ 1918 Stars & Stripes 29 Mar. 6/4 Base and insidious reports to the effect that the Q.M. boys [i.e. the quartermaster's men] intend to get even by holding up the M.P.'s issue of cottons and summer lights until next November. 1937 A. Woollcott Let. 31 Oct. (1946) 157 It looks like an instance of clairvoyance which might be filed for reference with the extrasensory boys at Duke University. 1945 A. Huxley Time must have Stop (new ed.) xxx. 288 Just a little bit of Wordsworth, say the blue-dome-of-nature boys. 1958 Spectator 7 Feb. 167/2 The public relations boys could really go to town. 1963 R. Parker tr. A. Solzhenitsyn One Day in Life of Ivan Denisovich 36 Oh no, he wasn't ill, the security boys were keeping him back. 2001 B. Broady In this Block there lives Slag 100 I watched the dipsos, the perverts, the wannabe pimps, the Care in the Community Boys..all beating their paths to her door. b. Without specifying word (esp. as the boys). (a) Ruffians, yobs, hooligans, thugs. Cf. b'hoy n. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > violent behaviour > [noun] > person tyrant1377 routera1500 termagant1508 ruffy?a1513 ruffiana1525 pander1593 thunderbolt1593 bully1604 ruffiano1611 tearer1633 violentoa1661 boy1662 violent1667 hardhead1774 Arab1788 ring-tailed roarer1828 blood-tub1853 tornado1863 stormer1886 hooligan1898 Apache1902 ned1910 rough-up1911 radge1923 goonda1926 pretty-boy1931 tough baby1932 bad-john1935 hoon1938 shit-kicker1954 tough boy1958 oafo1959 ass-kicker1962 droog1962 trog1983 1662 Life & Death Mrs. Mary Frith 79 This was so famed and noysed all about Town that I durst not appear for the Boyes. 1664 T. Killigrew Parsons Wedding v. iv, in Comedies & Trag. 152 Her Lady and she are coming, but in such a fury, I would not have the storm find you in the street; therefore I counsel you to avoid the boys, and take shelter in the next house. 1705 P. A. Motteux Amorous Miser ii. i. 25 Shou'd this report only..continue three or four days, you wou'd not be able to appear at your own Door for the Boys. Not at your own Door, Signior! a1790 B. Franklin Autobiogr. (1981) i. 7 I was generally a Leader among the Boys, and sometimes led them into Scrapes. 1834 Knickerbocker 3 34 The landlord after telling me not to mind the boys, went about his business. 1843 Punch 29 Apr. 179/2 The comments and cheers of those very important members of street society, the boys. 1855 E. G. Squier Waikna iv. 92 A figure approached, creating hardly less sensation among the people, than he would have done among the ‘boys’ in the Bowery. 1983 Times 25 July 11/3 Ring back pronto, schmuck or I'll send the boys round to break both yer legs. 1991 Independent (Nexis) 23 Feb. 15 If you find out who done it, we'll send the boys round and kneecap them. (b) Men of the armed forces; soldiers.See also boys in blue n. at blue adj. and n. Phrases 7b. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > warrior > soldier > [noun] > collectively boy1755 c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 7064 (MED) Wawain hadde wiþ him..Of orped boies þousandes fiftene.] 1755 A. Murray Let. 7 Oct. in Nova Scotia Hist. Soc. Coll. (1883) III. 165 If you will now Send Down a Good Parcel from your Districts, and Make your Boys Drive them this Length, I will take them off your hands. 1821 J. F. Cooper Spy I. xvi. 242 I sould two of her quarters to some of your troop; but divil the word did I tell the boys what an ould frind it was they had bought. 1881 F. E. Weatherly Old Brigade 2 Where are the boys of the Old Brigade? 1899 Congress. Rec. Feb. 1743/1 Some of you..remember when at Vicksburg our boys got so close to the Confederates that they talked back and forth. 1918 in F. A. Pottle Stretchers (1929) 116 Germans put over a box barrage entirely around the wood, hemming our boys in. 1959 M. Shadbolt New Zealanders 36 The time when we would watch the boys swing, bayonets flashing,..towards the grey waiting ships. 1997 Esquire Feb. 14/1 He returns this month to present a grunt's-eye-view of Bosnia and the boys of the 1st Armored Division's Dawg Pound Platoon. (c) slang. The criminal fraternity; (sometimes spec.) the petty criminals frequenting a particular sporting venue, esp. a racecourse. Now rare. ΚΠ 1846 N.Y. Herald 8 Feb. 1/4 ‘Crib’ in Park Row, where..the ‘boys’ were playing the thimble rig, commonly called the little Joker. a1889 Bird o' Freedom (Sydney) in A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang (1889) I. 174/2 Cleansing the rings from..those criminal scoundrels known as the boys. 1925 Brit. Weekly 12 Mar. 573/2 Buy..small nuts and put them in your pocket with your cash. There isn't one of the boys can dip you [i.e. pick your pocket] then. 1937 Evening News 12 Mar. 15/6 (advt.) The twisters, the welshers, the ‘spivs’ and the ‘boys’ are getting ready for a profitable session of the gentle sport of rooking the racegoer. 1938 F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad i. 13 Down goes the Squad the night before to greet ‘the boys’ at the turnstiles. (d) colloquial. Members of a group sharing common (typically masculine) interests; one's (male) fellows or habitual companions. Esp. in one of the boys: one who belongs to such a group; spec. one who conforms to its interests or practices, ‘a good sport’. Cf. lad n.¹ Additions. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > [noun] > one's fellows or habitual companions boy1850 the mind > emotion > love > friendliness > social intercourse or companionship > [noun] > quality of being a good fellow > good fellow or sport sport1881 one of the boys1893 1850 J. G. Saxe Addr. & Proc. 132 I, who..Feel the natural pride of a dutiful son, And esteem it to-day, the proudest of joys, That, not less than yourselves, I am one of the boys! 1886 Lantern (New Orleans) 8 Sept. 3/1 When he happens in with the boys, he can enjoy himself. 1889 W. Skey Pirate Chief 195 He goes on Sundays to the ‘pub.’ And sits among ‘the boys’. 1893 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Nov. 20/3 She doesn't want to be treated like a lady because she wants to be ‘one of the boys’. 1930 P. G. Wodehouse Very Good, Jeeves vii. 192 A chummy lion-tamer—a tamer who, after tucking the lions in for the night, relaxes in the society of the boys. 1969 New Yorker 3 May 64/3 He doesn't do it by being one of the boys. That's not his nature. He's a lone wolf. 1984 S. Knight Brotherhood ii. ix. 87 He was liked and respected as ‘one of the boys’, and a very different kind of respect from that enjoyed by the absent Commissioner. 2006 Marie Claire (U.K. ed.) Oct. 162/3 I would travel with him and the team,..and being with ‘the boys’ made it easier to forget than if we'd been wallowing at home. †6. A piece of furniture used for storage. Obsolete. [The origin of this sense is uncertain, and it may perhaps show a different word. Compare later tallboy n. 2, lowboy n. 2.] ΘΚΠ society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > cupboard or cabinet > [noun] > other cupboards or cabinets Flanders chest1400 warestall1508 livery cupboard1571 boy1656 by-closet1696 corner-cupboard1711 India cabinet1721 pot-cupboard1789 housemaid's cupboard1843 monocleid1885 vargueño1911 console1925 cocktail cabinet1928 storage unit1951 1656 in P. C. D. Brears Yorks. Probate Inventories 1542–1689 (1972) 113 Two hogsheads six barrells, gantreyes and a boy with glasse bottles. 1763 in J. Morris Adam Symes & his Descendants (1938) 118 1 Candle Boy, Canaster, Funnel, 7 old casks. 1781 in P. C. Moore Inventory Hartlebury Castle (1960) 65 Damask Silk bed Chamber—7 Yellow Japann'd lampes 2 Trays 2 Candlesticks a writing boy. 7. slang. Champagne. Usually with the. Now rare. [The origin of this sense is uncertain. Compare: 1890 J. S. Farmer Slang I. 313 A story, ben trovato, is told by the Sporting Times of June 30, 1882, as regards the origin of the phrase:—At a shooting part in Norfolk once, a youth was told off to supply the company with champagne. The day being hot and the sportsmen thirsty, cries of ‘Boy! Boy! Boy!’ were heard all day long. This tickling the fancy of the royal and noble party, the term ‘boy’ became applied to champagne. 1935 Times 18 Nov. 10/5 One still hears ‘The Boy’, and I believe such has been the case ever since ‘Veuve Clicquot’ became, for brevity's sake, ‘The Widow’. ] ΘΚΠ the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > wine > French wines > [noun] > champagne champagne1664 Champagne wine1671 simkin1829 sham1848 fizz1864 widow1876 bubbly water1878 boy1882 bubble water1899 pink wine1900 bubbly1916 bubble?1920 champers1955 shampoo1957 1882 Punch 11 Feb. 69/1 He'll nothing drink but ‘B. & S.’ and big magnums of ‘the Boy’. 1882 Punch 82 155/1 Of course, beastly dinner, but very good boy. Had two magnums of it. 1929 Melody Maker Jan. 20/2 Lord Delamere came up to them with a foaming magnum of champagne and said, ‘Well, boys! you've given us a glorious time! What do you say to a beaker of “the boy”?’ 1948 S. Sassoon Meredith vii. 86 Sala..was every inch a Fleet Street Bohemian, and his convivial suggestion may be assumed to have been ‘What about a bottle of the boy?’ 8. U.S. slang. Heroin. Also with the, that. Cf. girl n. 10. Time (1951) 26 Feb. 24/2 records the use of the phrase ‘Do you need a boy?’ to ask drug dealers whether they have any heroin for sale. ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > an intoxicating drug > [noun] > a) narcotic drug(s) > morphine, cocaine, or heroin > heroin heroin1898 junk1921 dynamite1924 schmeck1932 smack1942 horse1950 gear1954 boy1955 sugar1956 chiva1964 scag1967 hoss1968 scat1970 P-funk1982 black tar1983 1955 Amer. Speech 30 86 Boy, heroin, as opposed to girl, cocaine. 1960 C. Cooper Scene 12 But now he had the boy; he could lie around up in his crib,..drugged to the verge of insensibility. 1993 D. Coyle Hardball i. ii. 40 Like most big dealers, Rat worked in both ‘girl’, or cocaine, and ‘boy’, or heroin. 2000 F.E.D.S. Mag. 2 vi. 61/1 What kinds of drugs are they out there slinging?.. Everything from X to that Boy, but crack is still the biggest, that and weed. B. int. colloquial (originally U.S.). Expressing shock, surprise, excitement, appreciation, etc. Frequently used to give emphasis to the following statement.Frequently as oh boy! (cf. oboy int.); also as boy oh boy!, and sometimes with further reduplication. ΚΠ 1894 G. Ade Chicago Stories 24 S-s-t! Boy! Same as last time. 1900 Nation (N.Y.) 6 Sept. 194/1 These biskits are light as a feather, but, boy, they'd be heavier 'n lead If I thought that my hosses was shiv'rin'. 1917 Amer. Mag. Mar. 13/1 ‘I told that dame I was Kid Hanlon.’..‘Oh, boy!’ I yells. 1930 D. H. Lawrence Nettles 17 And they blushed, they giggled, they sniggered, they leered..and said: Oh boy!..that's pretty hot! 1932 Charleston (W. Va.) Gaz. 2 Apr. 6/2 Of course, the above never really happened... But, boy, oh boy, oh boy, wouldn't a line like that knock an editor out of his chair? 1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose i. 2 I slithered in over the fence and put her [sc. the aeroplane] down and boy! was I glad to be on the ground! 1998 B. Kingsolver Poisonwood Bible (1999) ii. 123 But, boy oh boy, let me tell you, they all have shoes. 2005 E. C. Irwin in A. M. Weber & C. Haen Clin. Applic. Drama Therapy Child & Adolescent Treatm. i. 15 Once, when the big, bad guys were sent to jail, I said, ‘Oh, boy..what if in real life little people could be the boss of big people: wouldn't that be something!’ Phrases P1. boys will be boys: used to express resignation regarding an (undesirable) aspect of the behaviour of a boy or young man, as being supposedly characteristic of his age or sex. Cf. girls will be girls at girl n. Phrases 1b. ΚΠ 1770 R. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (ed. 3) VI. dccxviii. 125 Heaven bless them both!—though Jack is under a Cloud with me at present—but Boys will be Boys—and I endeavour to make my philosophy like yours—severe only to itself. 1797 Two Cousins 12 I'll tell you what, Sarah, boys will be boys, do what we will, and it is not in their nature to like old people. 1847 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848) xiii. 112 And as for the pink bonnets..why boys will be boys. 1910 Times 8 Feb. 9/6 Boys will be boys, and probably most of us when we were at school have done much the same thing many a time. 1964 P. G. Wodehouse Frozen Assets iii. 50 I tried to tell him that boys will be boys and you're only young once. 1994 I. Welsh Acid House 125 The guy who knifed the boy..well, silly bugger, but boys will be boys. P2. a. boy-and-girl: (attributive) relating to or involving a boy and a girl; esp. in regard to a (youthful) love affair or romantic relationship. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > a lover > [adjective] > juvenile boy-and-girl1841 1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge xxvi. 84 I have found it necessary to take some active steps towards setting this boy and girl attachment quite at rest. 1870 L. M. Alcott Old-fashioned Girl viii. 132 It's only a boy-and-girl fancy, that will soon die a natural death. 1934 P. Bottome Private Worlds v. 54 It was what people called ‘a boy and girl affair’, but they can go quite deep. 2002 Times (Nexis) 22 Jan. We had a true boy-and-girl affair: we went to the pictures, for trishaw rides, she cooked egg and chips for me..and we went swimming together off Changi Beach. b. humorous. boys and girls: used as a form of address to a group of adults, esp. in imitation of a schoolteacher. ΚΠ 1913 Outlook 27 Dec. 892/1 Now then, boys and girls,..this is Pete Crowther, the grocery salesman... I am going to give you some straight goods now about salesmanship, see? 1921 H. W. Witwer Leather Pushers x. 253 Yes, boys and girls, Nada was a pulse quickener of the first water. 1988 ‘J. Norst’ Colors vii. 97 Hey, boys and girls, did Uncle Bob make a fuckie-uppie here? 2007 Bellville (Illinois) News-Democrat (Nexis) 7 May Now, boys and girls, can you say hypocrite? c. boy meets girl: used (chiefly attributive) with reference to a conventional or idealized romance.The extended phrase given in quot. 1935 is a line from the play Boy meets Girl, by B. C. Spewack and S. Spewack, which was first performed in Philadelphia on 18 Nov. 1935. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > love affair > [noun] > with reference to copy-book romance boy meets girl1936 1935 N.Y. Times 6 Dec. 30/4 As for the libretto [of ‘May Wine’], Mr. Mandel has done a suitable job, according to the ‘boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl’ formula.] 1936 N.Y. Times 12 Apr. ix. 3/1 You are star material on the screen in most cases only as long as you..can be worked into the ‘Boy Meets Girl’ formula. 1936 Zanesville (Ohio) Signal 28 Sept. 2/3 The plot is the familiar boy meets girl theme. 1938 M. Blankfort in W. Kozlenko One-act Play Today 82 The social play is interested in boy meets girl. It is a situation which no one can or wants to avoid. 1947 Landfall i. 45 This immediately..reduces the story to the familiar Hollywood formula of boy-meets-girl. 1998 Cosmopolitan (U.K. ed.) Nov. 16 This larky boy-meets-girl tale centres around the saucy activities of its heroine. P3. to send a boy to do a man's job and variants: to ask someone young, ill-equipped, or inexperienced to do difficult or complicated work. Usually in negative contexts, as never send a boy to do a man's job. ΚΠ 1861 N.Y. Times 16 Oct. 1/1 Gen. Hancock campaigned it through Mexico, and was too old a soldier to be caught sending a boy to do a man's work. 1899 Yale Law Rev. 9 76 To expect such men to grapple successfully with the great problems of city government is absurd. We send a boy to do a man's job. 1911 Los Angeles Times 10 Aug. ii. 4/2 Never send a boy to do a man's duty. 1951 L. Lariar You Can't Catch Me ii. 18 Do you send a boy out on a man's job? 1967 ‘E. McGirr’ Hearse with Horses vi. 142 Piron thought he shouldn't have sent a boy to do a man's job. 2008 Sydney Morning Herald (Nexis) 12 Mar. 21 He has probably come to the conclusion one should never send a boy to do a man's job. P4. jobs for the boys: preferential treatment (as by the securing of appointments) for one's supporters or favourites; a situation characterized by such treatment. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > position or job > [noun] > for one's favourites jobs for the boys1910 1897 Daily Rev. (Decatur, Illinois) 23 Dec. 4/2 While it would be a good thing to confine the census to this mere enumeration of people, it is not at all likely it will be so confined. If the full line of work is not attempted, there will be no jobs for the boys in the bureau. The principal aim seems to be to secure the places.] 1910 B. B. Lindsey & H. J. O'Higgins Beast x. 181 We should have used the surplus to provide ‘jobs for the boys’, as the other courts did. 1950 D. Christie & C. Christie His Excellency i. i It's just a political racket—Jobs for the Boys. 1999 Independent 3 Feb. i. 8/6 Mr Ruffley said that from the answer, ‘it looks like jobs for the boys and cronyism’. P5. boy next door: a boy with whom one has or might have grown up as a neighbour, esp. a boy conventionally presented as a model for emulation by parents to their own son (now rare), or a young man such as might feature in a conventional romance, regarded as attractive because of his naturalness, lack of sophistication or artifice, etc. Chiefly with the or attributive. Cf. girl next door at girl n. Phrases 2d. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > love affair > [noun] > with reference to copy-book romance > young man in conventional romance boy next door1868 1868 R. H. Quick Ess. Educ. Reformers App. 317 Perhaps we remember that in our nursery experiences, the good little boy next door was frequently referred to as presenting a striking contrast with our own unworthiness. 1886 Congregationalist (Boston, Mass.) 20 May 7/1 The boy next door stands for the associate who sits beside him in the class-room, who shares his luncheon at the noon recess, with whom he walks to and from school. 1923 M. F. Egan Confessions of Bk.-Lover i. 30 The boy next door became a mirror of virtue: he was quoted to me as one whose pavement was a model to all the neighbours. 1939 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Apr. 12/3 ‘We—we became engaged down here.’ ‘Oh... So he was the boy next door.’ ‘What do you mean?’ He hesitated. ‘It's just part of a long conversation I had once with—with someone.’ 1955 T. Sterling Evil of Day viii. 80 The boy-next-door parody was meant to amuse her. 1958 Photoplay Oct. 54/1 His whole build-up is based on The Boy Next Door—the boy who's within reach of every girl fan. 2003 Time Out N.Y. 28 Aug. 142 (advt.) More about what I am looking for: The fairly intelligent, ambitious, confident..apple-pie-style boy-next-door type that I can take home to meet the parents. Compounds C1. a. Appositive (indicating gender, youthfulness, etc.).Some of the more established transparent compounds of this type are given separately at Compounds 1b. ΚΠ 1570 T. Drant Two Serm. in T. F. Dibdin Library Compan. 76 This Romish Church defendeth..concubines, and boy-harlots. 1586 W. Warner Albions Eng. ii. xi. 45 Not so much as by the tongue the Boy-wench was bewraid. 1661 T. Fuller Andronicus v. viii. 89 Nuptial rites were suddenly dispatch't To a boy husband, a child wife was married, Our ages put together could not spell Thirty. 1681 J. Dryden in C. Saunders Tamerlane sig. I2 He's the first Boy-Poet of our Age. 1719 J. Richardson Two Disc. i. 95 She [sc. the Virgin Mary] is seated in Glory, encompass'd with Cherubims, Boy-Angels, and others as usually describ'd. 1762 J. Wesley Jrnl. 13 June (1827) III. 93 Two or three boy-officers. 1864 M. J. Holmes Darkness & Daylight xix. 180 I have often thought of this girl-wife and her handsome boy-husband, doubting whether I did right to marry them. 1866 W. D. Howells Venetian Life iv. 52 An Albanian boy, who..curiously impressed me, as if he were the young of some Oriental animal—say a boy-elephant, or infant camel. 1879 R. Browning Ivan Ivanovitch in Idyls I. 138 Poor Stiopka..first Of my boy-brood. 1923 E. Blunden To Nature 46 Old boy-heroes stood To catch its sparkling stonefish. 1942 R. St. John Land of Silent People vi. 135 I had been over in France in the last war, a boy crusader. 1997 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 13 July m1 Like his fellow boy-soldiers of the officer corps, John regularly received packages from home... By pooling their care packages the boy-officers were able to put together a memorable meal for John's birthday. 2002 Time Out N.Y. 26 Dec. 58/3 Harry Potter is a contemporary boy-consumer who attends what looks like a classic English boarding school for the ancient art of magic. b. boy-actor n. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > actor > [noun] > boy-actor playboy1616 boy-actor1811 1811 G. Ensor On National Educ. 274 The rage for such productions resembles the fury that seized all the idle some years ago to see the boy actor. 1861 A. K. H. Boyd Recreat. Country Parson 2nd Ser. 69 The popularity of the boy-actor Betty. 1995 Extrapolation Spring 52 A boy actor plays the role of the female Rosalind, who cross-dresses as the youth Ganymede. boy alto n. ΚΠ 1872 Musical Times & Singing Class Circular 15 639/1 A part-song for male voices,..in which the boy altos sang with the first tenors with excellent effect. 1967 Times 28 June 10/6 He became well known as a boy alto. 1996 R. Miller On Art of Singing iii. v. 176 He brings musicality to his ‘new’ instrument and applies some of the same basic techniques he used as a boy soprano or boy alto. boy baby n. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > baby or infant > [noun] > baby boy boy baby1649 1649 C. Hoole Easie Entrance Lat. Tongue ii. 262/2 A boy-babie, Púpulus. 1842 Times 13 Jan. 6/2 Queen Victoria has got a boy baby! 1991 J. Gomez Psychol. & Psychiatric Probl. Men (1993) iii. 12 Boy babies are more often breast-fed and are weaned later than girls. boy-bridegroom n. ΘΚΠ society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > marriage or wedlock > wedding or nuptials > people connected with wedding > [noun] > bridegroom > very young boy-bridegroom1807 1807 G. Crabbe Parish Reg. ii, in Poems 74 The Boy-Bridegroom, shuffling in his Pace, Now hid awhile and then exposed his Face. 1907 M. Hume Court Philip IV i. 31 The little bride, smiling and happy, and her pale boy bridegroom. 1988 Harvard Jrnl. Asiatic Stud. 48 102 At the time of her arranged marriage to the then twelve-year-old boy-bridegroom. boy child n. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > child > boy > [noun] knightc893 knapec1000 knaveOE knape childc1175 knave-childa1225 groom?c1225 knight-bairnc1275 pagec1300 mana1382 swainc1386 knave-bairna1400 little mana1425 man-childa1438 boy1440 little boya1475 lad1535 boykin1540 tomboya1556 urchin1556 loonc1560 kinchin-co(ve)1567 big boy1572 dandiprat1582 pricket1582 boy child1584 callant1597 suck-egg1609 nacketc1618 custrel1668 hospital-boy1677 whelp1710 laddie1721 charity-boy1723 pam-child1760 chappie1822 bo1825 boyo1835 wagling1837 shirttail boy1840 boysie1846 umfaan1852 nipper1859 yob1859 fellow-my-lad?1860 laddo1870 chokra1875 shegetz1885 spalpeen1891 spadger1899 bug1900 boychick1921 sonny boy1928 sonny1939 okie1943 lightie1946 outjie1961 oke1970 1584 T. Chaloner Shorte Disc. Nitre f. 4 Dissolued in warmed water,..or else in a yonge boy childes vrine. 1850 Harper's Mag. Oct. 617/1 The boy children shall be sent to school, where they may sit during three hours consecutively. 1928 C. McKay Home to Harlem xii. 161 He had a mulatto wife and a brown boy-child in New York. 2007 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 22 Sept. (Mag.) w13 The Chinese desire for a boy child is encapsulated in a Cambodian saying. boy-god n. ΚΠ 1602 F. Beaumont tr. Ovid Salmacis & Hermaphroditus sig. C3^v As the boy-god was keeping on his way. 1701 N. Rowe Ambitious Step-mother iii. 42 The Boy God Laughs at my Rage. 1816 Ld. Byron Siege of Corinth xxx. 49 We kneeling see Her, and the boy-God on her knee. 1997 Classical Q. New Ser. 47 604 Two lines of Propertius,..both of which describe those who might be stricken by the boy-god's bow. boy-king n. ΘΚΠ society > authority > rule or government > ruler or governor > sovereign ruler or monarch > king > [noun] > other types of king folk-kingOE boy-king1603 priest-king1606 shepherd king1744 king-emperor1789 1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 748 Most wicked men, who insolently triumphed ouer the boy king. 1798 H. Brand Huniades i. i. 16 This Boy King, the people will depose. 1907 Trans. Royal Hist. Soc. 1 260 Eager..to enjoy the favour of the boy-king, and with his favour the privilege of governing the country. 2000 Church Times 11 Aug. 14/1 It was during the boy-king's brief reign (1547–1553)..that Cranmer adopted a fully reformed view of the eucharist. boy soprano n. ΚΠ 1859 B. Taylor Trav. Greece & Russia xxx. 343 The sweetness and purity of the boy sopranos swelled and sank like a chorus of angels. 1923 Musical Q. 9 107 The first chorus (sopranos and boy sopranos, boy contraltos, and tenors) breathe softly. 2007 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 11 June d1 The former boy soprano was making a living belting out commercial jingles. C2. General attributive. ΚΠ a1842 T. Arnold Let. in Life & Corr. T. Arnold (1844) I. iii. 161 I have had..one of those specimens of the evils of boy-nature which make me always unwilling to undergo the responsibility of advising any man to send his son to a public school. 1846 Renfrewshire Mag. Oct. 56 Oliver had finished the second year of his apprenticeship; had cast off the boy clothes and assumed the toga. 1891 ‘M. Twain’ Lett. (1917) II. 541 I confined myself to the boy-life out on the Mississippi. 1905 Westm. Gaz. 25 Nov. 5/1 Of a sudden it struck into my boy-head like to grind a sack to save waste an' help my vather. 1976 F. Warner Killing Time i. i. 5 It was reported..as suicide, and they put it down to boy-trouble. C3. Objective. boy-queller n. ΘΚΠ the world > life > death > killing > killer for specific reason or type of person > [noun] > of boys boy-queller1609 1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida v. v. 47 Come, come, thou boy-queller shew thy face. View more context for this quotation 1870 G. P. Quackenbos Spiers & Surenne's French & Eng. Pronouncing Dict. 64/1 Boy-queller, tueur, meurtrier d'enfants (màles). 1906 Daily Chron. 14 Mar. 3/3 The weapons which Mr. Bompas-Smith would put into the hands of every boy-queller are mostly old, tried ones. 1991 Shakespeare Q. 42 30 The King, no boy-queller like Alexander, soon provides decorous yet companionable fellowship. C4. boy band n. a young all-male pop group; spec. such a group whose music and image are designed to appeal primarily to a teenage audience. ΚΠ 1985 Guardian 7 Nov. 11/5 Moody boy bands like The Waterboys and The Cult are making heavy records with deep lyrics for pimply adolescents with Camus peeping out of the jacket pocket. 1986 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 16 Mar. ii. 24/1 A ‘girl group’ is still singular enough to require notice. No one reviewed U2 as the latest boy band from Ireland. 1993 Newsday (Nexis) 10 Sept. 20 The boy-band from Boston is getting long in the tooth for its prime audience—the under-16 set. 1995 Face Sept. 37/3 Your average boy band generally can't wait to flee the potentially stigmatising orbit of the gay club scene. 2000 F. Walker in J. Adams et al. Girls' Night In 48 Admittedly he'd tried to kiss me, but he'd also tried to kiss two members of a boy band. † boy-blind adj. Obsolete as lacking in foresight or percipience as a boy. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > lack of understanding > foolishness, folly > childish folly, childishness > [adjective] > male knightlya1000 boyish?1545 boy-blinda1640 a1640 J. Fletcher & P. Massinger Loves Pilgrimage iii. ii, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Bbbbbbbb4/2 Put case he could be so boy-blind and foolish. boy chap n. English regional (south-western) a young, usually unmarried, male. ΚΠ 1872 T. Hardy Under Greenwood Tree I. iii. 116 He'd starve to death for music's sake now, as much as when he was a boy-chap of fifteen. 1939 F. Thompson Lark Rise 48 While the talking was going on, the few younger men, ‘boy-chaps’, as they were called until they were married, would not have taken a great part in it. 2004 Express & Echo (Exeter) (Nexis) 12 July 18 In the fifties, when I was a ‘boy chap’, I used to work in Exeter market. boy choir n. a choir composed only of boys. ΚΠ 1854 G. Burges tr. Plato Laws in Wks. V. ii. ix. 62 The boy-choir of the Muses would most correctly enter the first... Let the second be the choir (of men). 1898 Musical Times & Singing Class Circular 39 548/2 Boy choirs, mixed choirs, and quartet choirs. 1962 Morning Herald (Uniontown, Pa.) 21 Dec. 11/4 The boychoir will join the downstairs group for the singing of the antiphonal Mass. 2005 Sunday Express (Nexis) 18 Dec. 42 The trio of trebles..all sing in boy choirs. boy-crazy adj. (esp. of a girl) extremely enthusiastic about boys (as potential romantic or sexual partners). ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > love > flirtation or coquetry > [adjective] > eager to associate with boys boy-crazy1911 1911 I. H. Gillmore Janey 44 Mrs. Morgan says that Elsa is simply impossible this summer. She's just boy-crazy. 1923 Cosmopolitan Sept. 72/2 Going boy-crazy at fifty. 2002 Time 15 Apr. 64/1 In sitcomland, Kelly would be a boy-crazy princess. boy-cut adj. (also boy's cut, boys' cut) originally U.S. (of women's clothing) designed or tailored in a masculine style; spec. (of briefs, bikini bottoms, etc.) cut straight and low across the upper thigh to resemble snugly-fitting shorts. ΚΠ 1956 N.Y. Times 31 Aug. 3/6 (advt.) Double-breasted boys' cut coat. 1973 Walla Walla (Washington) Union-Bull. 11 Apr. 2/6 (advt.) Girls' boy cut pants. 1976 Xenia (Ohio) Daily Gaz. 26 May (Advt. Suppl.) 2 Pc. swimsuits... Solids and prints in bikini and boy cut leg styles. 2004 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 27 July (Features section) 15 There is still many a Betty Grable-style bikini with big, boy-cut bottoms. boy-days n. boyhood; time spent as a young boy. ΚΠ 1823 C. Lamb in London Mag. Oct. 406/2 Remember your boy-days. 1870 Chambers's Jrnl. 22 Oct. 674/1 Replete with tender memories of the place where I had passed my boy-days. 1958 S. Selvon Turn again Tiger ii. 44 What happen, you never had boy-days? You never play head and tail before? 1991 M. Matura Coup i. i. 1 We pay tribute to the man, Edward Francis Jones, Eddie to his friends, who, by all accounts, had quite normal boydays for a young man of his ilk. boy-farm n. now rare a school considered as a place to send unwanted boys (cf. farm n.² 6). ΘΚΠ society > education > place of education > school > [noun] > boys' school boy-farm1871 1871 Amer. Bibliopolist June (Monthly Gaz. of Lit.) 2/1 Mr. Pullen considers all schools..to be mere starvation-traps and boy-farms, where the scholars ‘are at the mercy of a brute who hates them’. 1891 W. Morris News from Nowhere v. 30 I had best say nothing about the boy-farms which I had been used to call schools. 1958 K. J. Fielding C. Dickens iii. 38 He soon hit on the idea of writing about the Yorkshire schools, boyfarms where unwanted children were disposed of. boy farmer n. (a) a boy engaged in farming; (b) a schoolmaster or headmaster (cf. boy-farm n.; rare). ΘΚΠ society > education > teaching > teacher > schoolteacher or schoolmaster > [noun] schoolmasterc1225 pedagoguea1387 pedanty1573 pedanta1586 dominiea1625 Khoja1625 schoolteachera1691 knight of the grammar1692 boy farmer1869 schoolkeeper1871 faki1872 professor1880 beak1888 schoolie1889 grade teacher1906 master teacher1931 chalk-and-talker1937 sir1955 teach1958 1869 E. Kellogg (title) The boy farmers of Elm Island. 1871 H. W. Pullen Tom Pippin's Wedding i. 16 It is..much more natural for the Boy to..say whether he is treated well or ill, than for the Boy-farmer to tell the plain truth, when less than half the truth would empty his school. 1901 Daily Chron. 16 Sept. 2/6 The professional boy-farmers..are naturally trying to supply what is desired. 1940 Times 17 Jan. 4/7 It is proposed that the boy farmers should have a three months' course of training on a piece of land of 100 acres outside Portsmouth. 2006 Lloyd's List (Nexis) 24 Nov. 6 A group entitled ‘on guard’ depicting a young boy farmer patriotically informing frontier guards on the work of saboteurs. boy genius n. †(a) extremely promising intellectual or artistic ability which is at an early stage of development (obsolete rare); (b) a precociously clever or talented boy or young man. ΚΠ 1831 A. Cunningham in Edinb. Lit. Jrnl. 5 Feb. 102/2 Be gentle with your pen,..Be as sweet as summer's mouth,..On boy-genius gaining growth. 1846 G. Gilfillan Sketches of Mod. Lit. I. 311 He [sc. Coleridge] is chargeable..in his earlier poems with the usual splendid sins of a boy-genius, imitation and turgidity of language. 1983 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 26 July (Late City Final ed.) c11/1 ‘The Good Earth,’ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's 1937 film, was dedicated to Irving Thalberg, the studio's boy genius. 2003 A. Konkle in B. J. Mann Edward Albee iv. 49 He was a boy genius (earned his Master's degree in his teens). boy-girl n. a person who combines some characteristics of both boys and girls. ΚΠ 1741 S. Richardson Lett. Particular Friends xc. 125 A cock'd Hat, a lac'd Jacket, a Fop's Peruke, what strange Metamorphoses do they make! And then the Air assumed with them..makes, upon the whole, such a Boy-girl Figure, that [etc.]. 1833 B. W. Procter Ess. & Tales in Prose 107 Bellario (a girl in disguise) addresses the King of Sicily... The young couple come in as masquers; and thus the boy-girl intercedes. 1850 New Monthly Mag. Feb. 274 This is not a little sarcastic on the part of the boy-girl, Harry Wilmington. 1956 J. W. Aldridge In Search of Heresy ii. 39 The ambivalent little boy-girls and girlboys of Capote and McCullers. 1997 J. Franceschina Homosexualities Eng. Theatre p. xi This androgyne..was able to cross-dress with impunity. Once on the stage, however,..the boy-girl challenges society. boy-kind n. boys collectively or in general (chiefly as distinguished from mankind). ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > child > boy > [noun] > boys collectively blush1620 boy-kind1784 boyhood1886 1784 Christmas Tale 26 Mankind and Boy-kind let this lesson reach! 1853 U.S. Rev. June 536 My poetry, in particular, he held up to the derision of mankind, or rather boy-kind. 1876 M. Collins Blacksmith & Scholar I. vi. 157 She held herself haughtily aloof from the mankind and boykind of New Bratton. 1999 Washington Post (Nexis) 30 Dec. c1 The auto show is where boykind learns yet another thing or two from mankind—we come here to dream, son. boy leg n. and adj. originally U.S. (a) adj. (of women's briefs, bikini bottoms, etc.) cut straight and low across the upper thigh to resemble snugly-fitting shorts; cf. boy-cut adj.; (b) n. a garment cut in this style; (in plural) the legs of such a garment. ΚΠ 1955 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 12 June a7/3 (advt.) Cotton swimsuits. Bloomer, boy leg styles. 1956 Lawton (Okla.) Constit. 28 May 3/4 (advt.) Swim suits..Bloomer leg suits. Boy legs. Half Skirts. 1997 Village Voice (N.Y.) 15 July 14/3 The old-fashioned one-piece bathing suits, with the square necks and the boy legs. 2003 S. Whiteley Too Much Too Young (2005) i. 22 Dressed in a black polka-dot bra and white boy-leg knickers. boy-lover n. (a) a lover of boys; a pederast; (b) a boy who is a lover. ΚΠ 1735 C. Place Reason Insufficient Guide 201 Æschylus, and Sophocles also, had a Tragedy publickly acted upon the Stage, called the (Pederastes) Boy-Lover. 1829 W. G. Simms Vision of Cortes 78 The Indian maid..stood beneath the old tree's shade. Surveying her boy-lover, as in view, He urged the arrowy prow of his canoe. 1882 Ballou's Monthly Mag. Sept. 278/2 The merry blue eyes were unchanged; her ci-devant pupil and boy-lover stood before her. 1960 Musical Times Aug. 501/1 A woman who could, if she chose, keep her boy-lover enslaved till death, but who has her great moment of renunciation. 1996 K. Maxwell Sexual Odyssey viii. 152 Tibullus..wrote an elegy in which Priapus, as the god of boy-lovers, told his worshipers how to win the affection of boys who are beautiful but cold. boy-man n. a boy who behaves or is treated like an adult; (also) a full-grown man who retains some of the characteristics of boyhood. ΚΠ 1616 T. Dekker Artillery Garden sig. C2 Yet all are loosers, and Victorious All, Euery Boy-man in this Infantery. 1763 J. Elphinston Education i. 5 The boy-man pities other boys at college! 1828 C. Lamb Char. Late Elia in Elia 2nd Ser. 228 He was too much of the boy-man. 1952 J. M. Brown As They Appear 33 Although he had more than the average male's courage, he remained something of a boy-man until he died at the age of forty-four. 2005 Hotdog June 108/1 He played..a boy-man who could not be counted on for anything—except, perhaps, to make the right expressions of love and honesty when they were most needed. boy racer n. British colloquial (a) a youth or young man who enjoys driving very fast and aggressively, typically in a customized or high-performance car; (b) a car which appeals to such a person. ΚΠ 1968 Times 27 Mar. 17/3 A lot of conversions have fallen down through total idiocy and the desire to satisfy boy racers. 1985 Times (Nexis) 25 Jan. 25/6 Some of the other changes..appear to be aimed at making the GTi more of a ‘boy racer’ than a magnificent performer hiding behind a rather discreet appearance. 2000 D. Adebayo My Once upon Time (2001) iii. 28 Make a night of it as the boy racers had taken to doing on the SW3 bridge, whirling in their customised Escorts and fat-bumpered Fiestas. boy-rid adj. [by analogy with bedrid adj.] rare overwhelmed or surfeited with boys. ΚΠ 1821 C. Lamb in London Mag. May 495/2 He is boy-rid, sick of perpetual boy. 1915 M. P. Willcocks Change viii. 89 They were, for the moment, without an assistant master, so that all this week he had been ‘boy-rid’. boy shorts n. originally U.S. (in early use) short trousers as a garment for women or girls; (now chiefly) women's briefs, bikini bottoms, etc., cut low and straight on the hip (cf. boy-cut adj.); also in singular. ΚΠ 1945 Waterloo (Iowa) Sunday Courier 1 July 11/5 (advt.) Boy shorts, pleated all around. Shorts and pedal pushers. 1974 R. Harris Decades II. iv. 85 Almost all of them wore cotton dressmaker bathing suits, the kind with boy shorts that were supposed to make heavy thighs look thin. 1991 Boston Globe (Nexis) 8 May (Living section) 73 The boy short..is a strong summer trend in bathing suit bottoms. 2005 J. L. Anderson Peaches 144 Leeda quickly stripped down too, to her silky hip-slung boy shorts. † boy-storied adj. Obsolete rare of which stories are told by boys. ΚΠ 1816 L. Hunt Story of Rimini ii. 235 Boy-storied trees, and love remember'd spots. boy wonder n. colloquial an exceptionally talented young man or boy, esp. one showing a great deal of promise; cf. wonder boy at wonder n. Compounds 1a. ΘΚΠ the world > action or operation > ability > [noun] > ability or talent > people having talent > person having talent > very gifted person prodigya1684 boy wonder1857 idiot savant1870 phenom1881 Wunderkind1891 superboy1907 Supergirl1912 savant1919 1857 Era 7 June 1/2 (advt.) The Royal Company of Liliputians [sic]... This unrivalled Troupe of Children... The Company consist of Master George Beckett, the Boy Wonder; [etc.]. 1898 Cent. Mag. Sept. 686/2 At this time Reynolds was dead, Romney was failing, Lawrence was as yet little more than a boy wonder, so that for a short time Hoppner had matters quite his own way. 1940 Detective Comics Apr. No. 38 (cover) The sensational character-find of 1940—Robin, the Boy Wonder. 1986 N.Y. Times 31 Aug. vi. 25/2 All that might seem too downbeat for a man who still has the seductive charm and youthful vitality of an ageless boy wonder. 2001 Sunday Mirror (Electronic ed.) 30 Dec. Jari Litmanen crossed, Heskey chested the ball down and there was the Boy Wonder to fire home. Derivatives ˈboy-like adv. and adj. ΘΚΠ the world > people > person > child > boy > [adverb] boy-like1587 1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. 433/1 The ringleader of this tumultuous rowt..hauing in his hand a drawne dagger, which he tossed from hand to hand, boy-like plaieng with it. 1591 A. Fraunce Countesse of Pembrokes Yuychurch Prol. sig. A3^v Lord of loue's no boy, although that he seeme to be boylike. 1600 ‘Ignoto’ in Englands Helicon sig. Z3^v Thy boy-like brags I heare. 1753 J. Hill Observ. Greek & Rom. Classics iv. 236 Boys, and boy-like critics may suppose this all the character of verse, but your Lordship will not judge so. 1852 H. B. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin I. ix. 132 Two boys, who, boy like, had followed close on her heels. 1937 J. P. Marquand Late George Apley vi. 62 They encountered a sudden thunder squall. Boylike, neither of them visualized the force of the gale..until it struck them suddenly with its full weight. 2006 J. Garbarino See Jane Hit viii. 203 I could..use my body in a physical way that wasn't regarded as boylike or socially inappropriate. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022). † boyn.² Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French boie; Latin bōia. Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman boie (also bui , buie , bou , beu , beue , bol , boue , bow , bue ; compare Old French, Middle French buie (12th cent.)) fetter, shackle, and its etymon (ii) classical Latin bōia (plural bōiae ) collar or yoke worn by criminals, in post-classical Latin shackle (especially for neck) (from 8th cent. in British sources), of uncertain origin; perhaps < ancient Greek βοεῖαι oxhide straps, use as noun (short for βοεῖαι δοραί ox-hides) of βόειος of an ox or oxen < βοῦς ox (see Bucephalus n.) + -ειος, suffix forming adjectives.Compare Spanish boya, Italian boia, both with the meaning ‘executioner’, and compare also (all ultimately < Latin, and all denoting fetters of various kinds) Dutch boei (compare Middle Dutch boien to fetter), Middle Low German boie, böye, Old High German boia (Middle High German boije, boye, boie, German regional Boie, Boi), and also (via Middle Low German) Old Icelandic (in late sources, plural) bejur, bæjur, Old Swedish boia (Swedish boja), Old Danish boiæ (bøje, boje). Scottish. Obsolete. In plural. Shackles, fetters. ΘΚΠ society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > binding or fettering > [noun] > bond(s) or fetter(s) or shackle(s) > for the feet or legs copsa700 fetterc800 gyvec1275 bolt1483 boysc1485 hose-ring?1515 hopshacklea1568 gin?1587 leg ring1606 hamper1613 shacklock1613 wife1616 pedicle1628 leg iron1779 wife1811 leg lock1815 ankle ring1823 anklet1835 hopple1888 Oregon boot1892 c1485 ( G. Hay Bk. Law of Armys (2005) 41 The quhilk fand all thir maneris of jrnis cheynes fettris and boys to prisoun men withall. 1487 (a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (St. John's Cambr.) x. 763 Schir peris lumbard that ves tane..thai fand In presoune, fetterit with boyis, sittand. c1500 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1844) I. 8/2 Gif he [sc. a thief] be put in boys or in fetteris. c1578 G. Maxwell et al. Depositions in W. Fraser Mem. Maxwells of Pollok (1863) I. 312 Had certane barrellis,..certane sokis, ane pair of irne boyis. 1607 in R. Pitcairn Criminal Trials Scotl. (1833) III. 3 Mackoneill, because he had the boyes on his legges, wrested his kute in leaping. 1718 in D. Yaxley Researcher's Gloss. Hist. Documents E. Anglia (2003) 20 Slade & a boy to ye Cart. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2021). boyv. Brit. /bɔɪ/, U.S. /bɔɪ/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: boy n.¹ Etymology: < boy n.¹ Compare man v., woman v., girl v.¹ 1. a. transitive. To address (a person) as ‘boy’.Esp. with a man as object, with belittling implication. ΘΚΠ the mind > language > speech > conversation > addressing or speaking to > speak to or address [verb (transitive)] > in a specific way thoua1425 thowt1440 yeet1440 ye1483 boy1573 uncle1597 goodfellow1628 thee1657 fellow1665 tutoyer1697 honour1726 pa1823 good man1846 old boy1867 tom1897 1573 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 48 If he boied me now..I hard him not. a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Knight of Malta ii. iii, in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Kkkkk3/1 Boy did he call me..I am tainted..Baffell'd, and boy'd. 1851 C. Dickens & M. Lemon Mr. Nightingale's Diary 1 Lithers. Here you are, my boy. Tip. (Much offended.) My boy! Who are you boying of! 1913 B. Tarkington Flirt 96 ‘Boy?’.. Do I hear aright? Sir, do you boy me?.. I am the stature of a man; had it not been for your razor I should wear the beard of a man; therefore I'll not be boyed. 1965 E. Mphahlele Down Second Ave 152 I was ‘jimmed’ and ‘boy-ed’ and ‘john-ed’ by whites. 2002 J. Brewster Vicar of Afton vii. 63 ‘Easy, boy! I'll handle this! Just cool down!’ ‘Don't “boy” me!’ b. transitive. To treat (a person) like a boy; to patronize. In early use also reflexive: to behave like a boy. ΘΚΠ the mind > emotion > pride > haughtiness or disdainfulness > treat haughtily or disdainfully [verb (transitive)] condescendc1460 boya1625 patronize1820 schoolmarm1903 ritz1911 high-tone1917 upstage1921 high-hat1922 infantilize1931 a1625 J. Fletcher Island Princesse ii. i, in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) 104 My countenance, it shames me, One scarce arrived, not harden'd yet, not Read in dangers and great deeds, sea-sick, not season'd—Oh I have boy'd my selfe. 1650 T. Vaughan Anima Magica 46 I know the world will be ready to Boy me out of Countenance for this, because my yeares are few, and green. 2002 Chicago Rev. (Nexis) 48 No. 4. 32 It should shame me to be so boyed by a senior at Brentwood High—all my eighteenness, all my parochial school, falling out like so much stuffing. 2006 Times (Nexis) 30 Jan. (Times2 section) 4 If they [sc. young people] feel they have been disrespected they don't say ‘dissed’ any more but say that they have been ‘boyed’, as in looked down upon. 2. transitive. Of a boy actor: to portray (a woman or her qualities) on the stage. In later use historical, frequently echoing quot. a1616. ΚΠ a1616 W. Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) v. ii. 216 I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra Boy my greatnesse. View more context for this quotation 1894 N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 511 To watch your young man, after his first teens, acting the woman, the squeaking Cleopatras boying womanishness, is to be disgusted. 1982 Theatre Jrnl. 34 452 The look of the actor who boyed Cleopatra's greatness on the stage of the Globe can never be recovered. 1993 Stud. Eng. Lit. 1500–1900 33 311 The very nature of theatrical representation defied ‘official’ positions on rank and degree, as common players personated princes, male actors ‘boyed’ females. 1998 C. R. Daileader Eroticism on Renaissance Stage i. 3 While she lived, the Queen was protected from profaning mimicry, unlike her female subjects, who were ‘boyed’ on stage endlessly. 3. a. transitive. In passive. To have a male child or children. rare. ΚΠ a1635 R. Corbet Poems (1807) 126 Nor hast thou in his nuptiall armes enjoy'd Barren imbraces, but wert girl'd and boy'd. 1997 Santa Fe New Mexican (Nexis) 6 June 23 (poem) Daughters are gifts worth the giving Why be ‘boyed’ when you can be ‘girled’? b. transitive. To provide with boys as personnel; to man with boys. Cf. man v. 1. rare. ΚΠ 1655 T. Fuller Hist. Univ. Cambr. vi. 96 in Church-hist. Brit. The gates were shut, and partly Man'd, partly boy'd against him. 1897 N.Y. Times 23 May 18/2 Is he confident..that he will be allowed his share in manning, or rather in ‘boying’, the municipal offices? 2001 Toronto Star (Nexis) 27 Oct. a1 A dozen military blockages manned (boyed) by teenaged Russian soldiers in lonely sentry posts close to the border. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < n.¹int.c1300n.²c1485v.1573
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boyn.1int.

Phrases

Compounds

Derivatives

† boyn.2

boyv.

boyn.¹int.

† boyn.²