boy

Noun

boy (countable and uncountable, plural boys or (eye dialect) boyz)

1. A male child.
   • Kieran plays football with other boys in his school.
   • The ſtretes of the cite alſo ſhalbe full of yonge boyes and damſelles, playnge vpon the ſtretes.1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or Marburg]: [Eucharius Cervicornus and Johannes Soter?], →OCLC, Zachary [Zechariah]...
2. (broadly, informal) A young man.
   • Kate is dating a boy named Jim.

   Synonyms:

   brat, knave, squirt

3. (broadly, diminutive, especially) A son of any age.
   • Low as that tide has ebbed with me, / It still reflects to memory’s eye / The hour, my brave, my only boy, / Fell by the side of great Dundee.1805, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC...
   • If I'd kept a woman, he realized, instead of sending 'em back to their fathers' lodges - the Shoshone girl, them two Hunkpapas, the Crow I called Sally, even that Ree that come near talking me to death - if I'd kept one of 'em for more than just a winter, I'd have boys of my own by now to bring in...1950, Dorothy M. Johnson, War Shirt; in Indian Country, London: Corgi, 1961, page 110

   Synonyms:

   son

4. (broadly, diminutive, endearing) A male human younger than the speaker.
5. (broadly, derogatory, informal, mildly, sometimes) A male human of any age, as opposed to a "girl" (female human of any age).
   • boys' club
   • "My dear girl, what has he done?" said Mrs. Mallowe, sweetly. It is noticeable that ladies of a certain age call each other "dear girl," just as commissioners of twenty-eight years' standing address their equals in the Civil List as "my boy."1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 10
6. (broadly, obsolete) A male of low station, (especially as pejorative) a worthless male, a wretch; a mean and dishonest male, a knave.
   • Do’ſt thou call mee foole boy?c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […]...
7. (broadly, now rare and usually offensive outside some Commonwealth nations) A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee, particularly
   • He allowed his ‘boy’ - an overfed young negro from the coast - to treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking insolence.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 211
   • “Why does he go out and pinch all his dogs in person? He’s an administrator, isn’t he? Wouldn’t he hire a boy or something?”
     “We call them ‘staff,’” Roger replies, […]1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, 1st US edition, New York: Viking Press, →ISBN, part 1: Beyond the Zero, page 37
8. (broadly, now rare and usually offensive outside some Commonwealth nations) A younger such worker.
   • I resolved to continue in the Cave, with my two Servants, my Maid, and a Boy, whom I had brought from France.1721, Penelope Aubin, The Life of Madam de Beaumount, ii, 36
9. (broadly, historical, offensive, now rare and usually offensive outside some Commonwealth nations) A non-white male servant regardless of age, particularly as a form of address.
   • My Boy Stephen Grauener.1625, W. Hawkins in Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes, Vol. I, iii, vii, 211
   • They picked out two of the strongest of the Boys (as they call the Men) about the place.1834, Edward Markham, New Zealand or Recollections of It, section 72

   Synonyms:

   chap, guy, lad, mate

10. (broadly, obsolete, now rare and usually offensive outside some Commonwealth nations) A male camp follower.
    • If any water be rough and boysterous, or the chanell verye broade, it manye times drowneth the carriages and the boyes and nowe and then slouthfull and lyther souldiours.1572, Flavius Vegetius Renatus, translated by John Sadler, Foure Bookes... Contayninge a Plaine Forme, and Perfect Knowledge of Martiall Policye..., iii, vii
    • Godes plud kil the boyes and the lugyge,
      Tis the arrants peece of knauery[…]1599 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, […] (First Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Tho[mas] Millington, and Iohn Busby […], published 1600, →OCLC...
11. (broadly, offensive) Any non-white male, regardless of age.
    • A Hottentot... expects to be called by his name if addressed by any one who knows it; and by those to whom it is not known he expects to be called Hottentot... or boy.1812, Anne Plumptre translating Hinrich Lichtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa, in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806, Vol. I, i, viii, 119
    • Every darky, however old, is a boy.1888, Louis Diston Powles, Land of Pink Pearl, or Recollections of Life in the Bahamas, section 66
12. (broadly, especially, informal) A male friend.
    • hanging with my boys
    • The next thing I remember, I am walking down the street / I'm feeling all right, I'm with my boys, I'm with my troops, yeah.1980, Paul Simon, “Late in the Evening”, in One-Trick Pony

Interjection

1. Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing.
   • Boy, that was close!
   • Boy, that tastes good!

Verb

boy (third-person singular simple present boys, present participle boying, simple past and past participle boyed)

1. (transitive) 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.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...

Adjective capitalized: BOY

BOY (not comparable)

1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of beginning of year.
   • Coordinate term: EOY (“end of year”)