barrow boy
barrow boy noun: a boy or man who sells goods, especially fruits or vegetables, from a barrow; a costermonger.
Noun
barrow boy (plural barrow boys)
- A boy or man who sells goods, especially fruits or vegetables, from a barrow; a costermonger.
- I pointed out to him that it was impossible for him to do that ... barrow boys to take him back to Manchester.1939, John Worby, Spiv's Progress, page 72
- ...at a London magistrate's court a young coster — a barrow boy — was summoned before me for selling rhubarb without a licence.1948, "Is rhubarb a fruit?", The Listener, page 650
- A financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background.
- The "barrow boy" commodities trader may well have no aspirations to old-style middle class tastes.1992, Leslie Budd, Sam Whimster, Global Finance and Urban Living, page 326
Forms of barrow boy
| plural | barrow boys |
|---|---|
| alternative form | barrow-boy |
Origin of barrow boy
From barrow + boy. First use appears c. 1939. See cite below. The slang usage dates from the 1980s.
Questions about barrow boy
- What does barrow boy mean?
- Barrow boy means a boy or man who sells goods, especially fruits or vegetables, from a barrow; a costermonger.
- What part of speech is barrow boy?
- Barrow boy is a noun.
- What is the plural of barrow boy?
- The plural of barrow boy is barrow boys.
Words near barrow boy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: barrow boy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-barrow boy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “barrow boy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barrow_boy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.