OLD BOY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Old boy

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/oʊld bɔɪ/ Listen

noun

Boy n.

1.

A male child, from birth to the age of puberty; a lad; hence, a son. "My only boy fell by the side of great Dundee." Note: Boy is often used as a term of comradeship, as in college, or in the army or navy. In the plural used colloquially of members of an associaton, fraternity, or party.

2.

In various countries, a male servant, laborer, or slave of a native or inferior race; also, any man of such a race; considered derogatory by those so called, and now seldom used. (derog.) "He reverted again and again to the labor difficulty, and spoke of importing boys from Capetown."

Boy bishop, a boy (usually a chorister) elected bishop, in old Christian sports, and invested with robes and other insignia. He practiced a kind of mimicry of the ceremonies in which the bishop usually officiated.

The Old Boy, the Devil. (Slang)

Yellow boys, guineas. (Slang, Eng.)

Boy's love, a popular English name of Southernwood (Artemisia abrotonum); called also lad's love.

Boy's play, childish amusements; anything trifling.

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Etymology of 'Old boy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Old boy" Quotes from Famous Books

... Mrs. Baxter to comprehend the nature of the symmetrical white parcel now carried in his right hand. Her face became pensive as she gazed after the flying slender figure:—there came to her mind the recollection of a seventeen-year-old boy who had brought a box of candy (a small one, like William's) to the station, once, long ago, when she had been visiting in another town. For just a moment she thought of that boy she had known, so many ...

— Seventeen - A Tale Of Youth And Summer Time And The Baxter Family Especially William • Booth Tarkington

... Dick. 'Be careful what you say, old boy, for this is a serious matter. Are you quite sure? Is ...

— The Old Curiosity Shop • Charles Dickens

... in the North Countrie, far away from any town or village, there lived not long ago, a poor widow all alone with her little son, a six-year-old boy. ...

— More English Fairy Tales • Various

... much better, to have accepted the inevitable as gracefully as I could, paid the bills, and then, after we reached home, have made the situation plain and "have put my foot down" once and for all. But I had not done that. I had lost my temper and acted like an eighteen-year-old boy instead of ...

— Kent Knowles: Quahaug • Joseph C. Lincoln

... town. We seven girls were like sprites gone mad. We were like fairy torches that kindled the whole throng. We flitted among the palms like will-o'-the-wisps. We danced the toes out of our satin slippers. We led our old boy-friends a wild chase of young love and laughter, and because our hearts were like frozen lead within us we sought, as it were, "to warm both hands at the fires of life." We trifled with older men. We flirted, as it were, ...

— Different Girls • Various

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