Word.ws English Dictionary

bootblack

bootblack noun: a shoeshine boy; a person who shines shoes as an occupation.

Noun

bootblack (plural bootblacks)

  1. (dated) A shoeshine boy; a person who shines shoes as an occupation.
    • The young negro bootblack hummed "The Camp Meeting Blues" and polished in rhythm to his tune, drawing the shiny shoe-rag so taut at each stroke that it snapped like a banjo string.1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXIV, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC

Verb

bootblack (third-person singular simple present bootblacks, present participle bootblacking, simple past and past participle bootblacked)

  1. (transitive) To shine shoes.

bootblack meaning in Bengali

bootblack in Bengali

একজন জুতা পালিশকারী বালক, জুতা পালিশ করা

Synonyms of bootblack

Forms of bootblack

Noun
pluralbootblacks
alternative formboot-black
Verb
third-person singular presentbootblacks
present participlebootblacking
past participlebootblacked
pastbootblacked

Origin of bootblack

From boot + black.

Questions about bootblack

What does bootblack mean?
Bootblack means a shoeshine boy; a person who shines shoes as an occupation.
What is bootblack in Bengali?
Bootblack in Bengali is একজন জুতা পালিশকারী বালক, জুতা পালিশ করা. See Bootblack meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is bootblack?
Bootblack can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of bootblack?
The plural of bootblack is bootblacks.

Words near bootblack in the dictionary

  1. bootables
  2. Bootan
  3. Bootawa
  4. bootay
  5. bootays
  6. bootblack
  7. bootblacked
  8. bootblacker
  9. bootblackers
  10. bootblacking
  11. bootblacks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bootblack (page history and authors); bootblack (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bootblack.wav.

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