fishboy

Noun

fishboy (plural fishboys)

1. A boy who catches, prepares, or sells fish.
   • Beeny retired before the thunder and lightning of indignant virtue. Then all the fishboys struck up a dismal chant of victory. “Yoo-hoo—Custy’s won the day—Beeny’s scair-tit,” going up on the last syllable.1853, Charles Reade, chapter XIII, in Christie Johnstone. A Novel., London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 217
   • “Have you seen these local fishboys running through their militia drills?” a midshipman asked his mates loudly when the song was done. “I swear it was a right entertainment.”1994, Jennifer Armstrong, chapter 9, in Ann of the Wild Rose Inn (Wild Rose Inn; 2), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 144
2. A merboy.
   • “Sometimes, when the sea is tempestoso, the fishboys come into the village through the grotto, and take away… how you say?” The charcoal embers in his eyes glow. “They take away the bad boys.”2003, John Sam Jones, “The Fishboys of Vernazza”, in Fishboys of Vernazza, Cardigan, Ceredigion: Parthian, →ISBN, page 6
   • She’s going to ask how long fishboys live, anyway, tell me that it isn’t forever.2013, Hannah Moskowitz, chapter 19, in Teeth, New York, N.Y.: Simon Pulse, →ISBN, page 198