Word.ws English Dictionary

big boys

big boys is the plural of big boy.

Meaning of big boy

Noun

big boy (plural big boys)

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see big, boy.
  2. (idiomatic) A large object or person.
    • I've been dying to get behind the wheel of this big boy.
  3. (idiomatic, informal) A male child who is considered mature enough for some purpose.
    • You're a big boy now, and big boys go to school.
  4. (idiomatic, informal) An adult male, considered to be sufficiently mature and independent.
    • Coordinate term: big girl
  5. (plural-normally) One who is in a dominant position, such as in business, elite sport, etc.
    • He started a small manufacturing plant, but he couldn't compete with the big boys.

Noun

big boys pl (plural only)

  1. (idiomatic, plural, plural-only) The people or bodies with the most influence and/or power.
    • If you think you can do better than the big boys of electronic engineering, then good luck.
    • Joe said: “You big boys ought to find a farm,
      And make good farmers, and leave other fellows
      The city work to do. There's not enough
      For everybody as it is in there.”
      “God!” one said wildly, and, when no one spoke:
      “Say that to Jimmy here.[…]2016 November, Robert Frost, The Collected Poems of Robert Frost (Classic Thoughts and Thinkers), Book Sales, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 143

Questions about big boys

What does big boys mean?
Big boys means the people or bodies with the most influence and/or power.
What is big boys the plural of?
Big boys is the plural of big boy.
What part of speech is big boys?
Big boys is a noun.

Words near big boys in the dictionary

  1. big box
  2. big boxes
  3. big boy
  4. big boy britches
  5. big boy pants
  6. big boys
  7. big brain
  8. Big Brake
  9. big break
  10. big breaks
  11. big bro

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: big boys (page history and authors); big 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-big boys.ogg.

Cite this entry: “big boys.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/big_boys. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.