Word.ws English Dictionary

bootblacks

bootblacks is the plural of bootblack.

Meaning of bootblack

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

See all 2 meanings of bootblack

Questions about bootblacks

What is bootblacks the plural of?
Bootblacks is the plural of bootblack.

Words near bootblacks in the dictionary

  1. bootblack
  2. bootblacked
  3. bootblacker
  4. bootblackers
  5. bootblacking
  6. bootblacks
  7. bootblock
  8. bootblocks
  9. bootboard
  10. bootboards
  11. bootboy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bootblacks (page history and authors); bootblack (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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Cite this entry: “bootblacks.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bootblacks. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.