Word.ws English Dictionary

good ole boy

good ole boy is the alternative form of good old boy.

Meaning of good old boy

Noun

good old boy (plural good old boys)

  1. A male friend, especially a childhood friend; a man with an established network of friends who assist one another in social and business situations; a decent, dependable fellow.
    • "Billie, what kind of a lad is that young Coke up at Washurst?" He addressed an old college friend. . . .
      "He's one of those Ohio Cokes—regular thing—father millionaire—used to be a barber—good old boy."1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 5, in Active Service
    Synonyms:
    buddy, pal, country boy
  2. A white man who embodies the culture stereotypically associated with the Southern US, such as bias against nonwhite people, and other conservative (usually Christian) attitudes.
    • "White Lightning" concerns a good old boy named Gator McKluskey (Burt Reynolds) who is serving time in the Arkansas pen for messing around with illegal liquor.1973, "Quick Cuts" (film review), Time, 24 Sep.

Forms of good ole boy

pluralgood ole boys

Questions about good ole boy

What is good ole boy the alternative form of?
Good ole boy is the alternative form of good old boy.

Words near good ole boy in the dictionary

  1. good old boyness
  2. good old boys
  3. good old days
  4. good old times
  5. good ole
  6. good ole boy
  7. good ole boys
  8. good on someone
  9. good one
  10. good people
  11. good PM

Source and license

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