BOY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Boy

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/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.

verb

Boy v. t. To act as a boy; in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage. "I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness."

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Etymology of 'Boy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Boy" Quotes from Famous Books

... a boy, had been keenly conscious of these defects. Sometimes when he had been bullied or hustled about at school he would retire to his cubicle and examine his features in a looking-glass, and he would sigh ...

— Where Angels Fear to Tread • E. M. Forster

... me rose and went, and as they did so the boy rose also, and taking a loaf from his table handed ...

— A King's Comrade - A Story of Old Hereford • Charles Whistler

... enlightened Christian women are cursed. But one word of fact is worth a volume of philosophy; let me give you some of my own experience. I am the mother of seven children. My girlhood was spent mostly in the open air. I early imbibed the idea that a girl was just as good as a boy, and I carried it out. I would walk five miles before breakfast or {285} ride ten on horseback. After I was married I wore my clothing sensibly. Their weight hung entirely on my shoulders. I never compressed my body out of ...

— Searchlights on Health: Light on Dark Corners • B.G. Jefferis

... school what was called "reading over." The boys all assembled in the library and the Head Master, standing in front of his tall desk, summoned each division before him in turn. The marks of the week were read out and the boys took places, moving either up or down according to their marks; so that a boy who was at the top of his division one week might find himself at the bottom the next ...

— Orpheus in Mayfair and Other Stories and Sketches • Maurice Baring

... prevailed, that women have no concern with such matters, and that business habits and qualifications relate to men only. Take, for instance, the knowledge of figures. Mr. Bright has said of boys, "Teach a boy arithmetic thoroughly, and he is a made man." And why?—Because it teaches him method, accuracy, value, proportions, relations. But how many girls are taught arithmetic well?—Very few indeed. And what is the consequence?—When the girl ...

— Character • Samuel Smiles

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