释义 |
boy /bɔɪ /noun1A male child or youth: a four-year-old boy the survey showed that both boys and girls smoked regularly...- It trades on facile ideas about city and country, youth and age, boys and girls.
- There were old and young people, little boys and girls, teenagers and babies in prams.
- The council is now made up of six boys and girls, all teenagers.
Synonyms lad, schoolboy, child, little one, young one, youngster, youth, young man, young fellow, young adult, young person, teenager, adolescent, juvenile, minor, junior; stripling, fledgling, whippersnapper; Scottish & Northern English bairn, wean, laddie; West Indian pickney informal kid, kiddie, kiddiewink, shaver, nipper, tot, tiny, young 'un, teen, teenybopper British informal sprog North American informal rug rat Australian/New Zealand informal ankle-biter derogatory brat, chit, urchin, guttersnipe 1.1A person’s son: she put her little boy to bed...- One night as I was tucking the boys into bed, I noticed how much longer their legs seemed since our arrival.
- Instead of cajoling the boys into bed around 8pm, Garfield now makes sure both are tucked up by 6.30.
- She tucked the boys into their beds, read them a story and sat with them till they fell asleep.
1.2 [with modifier] A male child or young man who does a specified job: a delivery boy...- Opperman initially worked as a bicycle messenger and telegram boy.
- She stood at the front door watching the delivery boy hop back on his bicycle and peddle away.
- He is busy juggling being a pizza delivery boy, a physics student and a superhero.
2 [usually with adjective] A man, especially a young or relatively young one: I was the new boy at the office...- Like the late Nick Drake, local boy Summers seems too fragile a creature to last very long on this planet.
- It is not hard to see why local boy Steinbeck loved this place despite his depiction of the harshness meted out to some.
- It will be fantastic for the young kids in Keighley to see a local boy playing in rugby league's showpiece.
2.1 (boys) informal Men who mix socially or who belong to a particular group, team, or profession: he wants to stay one of the boys our boys have finished bombing...- Mincing up to the two new boys on the team and asking, ‘Have you killed before?’ might seem a little abrupt.
- As photographs emerged of British soldiers torturing prisoners - not our dear British boys!
- Good, experienced players were omitted from the World Cup squad and the new boys didn't deliver.
2.2 dated A friendly form of address from one man to another, especially from an older man to a young man: my dear boy, don’t say another word!...- My dear boy - in England some of still have a drink or two at lunch even on a working day.
- Pentheus, my dear boy, some cruel insanity-jealousy perhaps has warped your mind.
- Wheels of fate have already begun to turn my dear boy, ones that can no longer be stopped.
2.3 dated, offensive A black male servant or worker (often used as a form of address). 2.4A form of address to a male dog: down boy!...- Bad dog! Down boy!
- So during arrests he'd be yelling "Down boy! Down boy!" at the dog and journalists wrote about how hard the officer tried to get the dog off the criminal.
- Sit! Good Boy!
exclamation informalUsed to express strong feelings, especially of excitement or admiration: oh boy, that’s wonderful!...- We managed to clean up before we called for help so as not to look conspicuous but, boy!
- Freddy vs Jason is the battle you've been waiting to see and, boy, does it raise the bar on excitement!
- A bitter and biting December day in Balerno is no place for niceties and, boy, did these two teams not show us any niceties.
Phrasesboys in blue boys will be boys the big boys that's my boy (or girl)! OriginMiddle English (denoting a male servant): of unknown origin. A boy was originally ‘a male servant’; the origin is obscure. It is apparently identical to East Frisian boy ‘young gentleman’ and may be identical to Dutch boef ‘knave’. Although boy is used positively and indulgently in phrases such as that's the boy and one of the boys, the connotation of lower status persisted alongside this in its use as a form of address for summoning and giving orders to slaves or servants. This negative association has connections with the phrase good ole boy used to refer to a white male of the southern US portrayed as believing in simple pleasures, but with deep social and racial prejudices (1982 S. B. Flexner Listening to America 286: ‘A loyal southerner, with all the charm and prejudice the term conveys, has been widely called a good ole boy since the mid-1960s’). See also toy
Rhymesahoy, alloy, Amoy, annoy, buoy, cloy, coy, destroy, employ, enjoy, Hanoi, hoi polloi, hoy, Illinois, joy, koi, oi, ploy, poi, Roy, savoy, soy, tatsoi, toy, trompe l'œil, troy |