doughboy
/ˈdəʊbɔɪ
/noun
1A boiled or deep-fried dumpling.He had a doughboy (fried dough sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon) and recommended the place (he's seven).
2US informal A United States infantryman, especially one in the First World War.Like the ubiquitous Union infantry, Southern rebels, and World War I doughboys found in dozens of cities and towns throughout the United States, Toy Soldier is a production-line memorial ready to take his place in a long line of statues....
- Writers unmercifully poked fun at the mass-produced Civil War statues on their nearly identical plinths, or World War I doughboys standing awkwardly in town squares.
- I still believe today's infantrymen could learn from the WWI doughboys.
Said to have been a term applied in the Civil War to the large globular brass buttons on the infantry uniform; also said to derive from the use of pipe clay ‘dough’ to clean the white belts worn by infantrymen
