Word.ws English Dictionary

guy

/ɡaɪ/UK[ɡaɪ]

guy noun: an effigy of a man burned on a bonfire on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (5th November).

Noun (1)

guy (plural guys)

  1. (Ireland, UK) An effigy of a man burned on a bonfire on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (5th November).
  2. (dated) A person of eccentric appearance or dress; a "fright".
    • “But shan’t I look a guy?”
      “Not a bit of it. Jist the very kick!”1845, Henry Cockton, The Love Match, Clark: W.M, page 77
    • I am always a perfect guy, whatever I wear, when I sit against a red curtain. You men say that a woman always knows when she’s good-looking, but I am happy to say I know when I look a guy.1865, Margaret Oliphant, “Miss Marjoribanks”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume 97, page 316
  3. (colloquial) A man or boy; a fellow.
    • “You don't say so? I thought he was some guy from Pennsylvania.”1873, ‘Mark Twain’, The Gilded Age
    • "Hi, guys. Did you have a fun time at school?" said Katherine.
      "Yeah we did," said Stacy.2007, Manook Sarkisyan, Jack and the Journey through Time, page 219
  4. (especially, in plural, sometimes controversial) A person (see usage notes).
    • You know, I don't believe any girl ever had any better friends than you two guys1932, Sidney Howard, The Greeks Had a Word for Them, spoken by Jean (Ina Claire), (addressing two women)
    • My “Guys” actually constitute a collection of people that range from my nearest and dearest girlfriends, my immediate and extended family, co-workers and acquaintances that care.2009, Carole McCaskill, WHAT COLOR IS MY RIBBON? : An Ovarian Cancer Success Story
  5. (colloquial) Anything seen to have character and personality, such as an animal or a toy.
    • The dog's left foreleg was broken, poor little guy.
    • I just want to play with my guys. My guys are my friends, they're stuffed animals or little action figures I have a lot of them.2011, Richard S. Stripp Sr., Mommy, I Wish I Could Tell You What They Did To Me In School Today
  6. (informal, term-of-address) dude, Buster, Mack, fella, bud, man.
    • Hey, guy, give a man a break, would ya?
  7. (colloquial) Thing, item (term that can be used to refer to any entity)
    • This guy, here, controls the current, and this guy, here, measures the voltage.
    • This guy is the partial derivative of that guy with respect to x.

Verb (1)

guy (third-person singular simple present guys, present participle guying, simple past and past participle guyed)

  1. (intransitive) To exhibit an effigy of Guy Fawkes around the 5th November.
  2. (transitive) To make fun of, to ridicule with wit or innuendo.
    • The dusky hunters "guyed" the palefaces who could not do as well as they with their primitive weapons, even though the fire spouted from the iron tubes and the balls that could not be seen by the eye carried death farther than did the missiles launched by the natives.1905, Edward S. Ellis, Deerfoot in The Mountains
    • Swift and other satirists mercilessly guyed the unlettered self-importance of the peddlars of such soul-food, exposing their humility and self-laceration as an egregious and obnoxious form of self-advertisement (s'excuser, c'est s'accuser).2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 278

Noun (2)

guy (plural guys or (obsolete) guies)

  1. (obsolete, rare) A guide; a leader or conductor.
  2. A support rope or cable used to aid in hoisting or lowering.
  3. A support to secure or steady structures prone to shift their position or be carried away (e.g. the mast of a ship, a suspension bridge, or a utility pole).

Verb (2)

guy (third-person singular simple present guys, present participle guying, simple past and past participle guyed)

  1. To equip with a support cable.
    • The swinging booms were then guyed out, and the boats made fast by geswarps, and everything in harbor style.1840, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Guy

Guy (plural Guys)

  1. A male given name from the Germanic languages.
    • I am not Samson, nor Sir Guy, nor Colbrand,
      To mow 'em down before me;1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
    • "Guy," he said. He said it slowly and with a certain puzzlement. He said it again, thoughtfully, as if it were a name of someone he had known long ago but couldn't quite place. "Guy. Yes - don't you find it difficult being called that? I mean, if Nora hadn't said, I'd have put you down as a Kevin...
    • He looked like an innocent child, smiling, wide-eyed, his cheeks plump and rosy, defying the object of his insults to take offence. For they were insults, Guy was in no doubt about that. Leonora's brother was implying that his name was far too upper-class for its possessor.1990, Ruth Rendell, Going Wrong, →ISBN, page 157
  2. A surname originating as a patronymic.
    • Derek Guy was a relatively unknown menswear writer with 25,000 followers on Twitter in 2022.2025 June 14, Christopher Mathias, “JD Vance threatened to deport him. The ‘menswear guy’ is posting through it”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2025

Noun (3) capitalized: Guy

Guy (plural Guys)

  1. (UK) An effigy of Guy Fawkes burned on Bonfire Night

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Guy

Guy

  1. A male given name from Hebrew.
  2. A surname.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Guy

Guy

  1. A minor city in Faulkner County, Arkansas.
  2. An unincorporated community in Liberty Township, Howard County, Indiana.
  3. An unincorporated community in Warren County, Kentucky.
  4. An unincorporated community in Fort Bend County, Texas.
  5. A hamlet in the Municipal District of Smoky River, No. 130, Alberta, Canada.

guy meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

guy in Tamil

ஓர் ஆண், ஆள், விகாராமாக உடை அணிந்தவர்

guy in Urdu

بندہ, رسی, سلاخ

guy in Bengali

male, man
ছেলে chele

guy in Telugu

guy, fellow, dude
బుల్లోడు bullōḍu
More languagesFewer languages
guy in Malayalam
ഗെഡി geḍi
guy in Kannada
ಆಳು
guy in Assamese
ল’ৰা löra, আপা apa
guy in Arabic
رَجُل rajul

Examples of guy in a sentence

  • Why are you so ashamed that her child saw you looking a guy, sprawled on the floor, spilling cakes?1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 138:
  • She was one of the guys, but they were also very much aware that she was an attractive young woman.2014, Joel Williamson, Elvis Presley: A Southern Life:
  • “Have I kissed too many guys?” is not a question that mature, sexually active women are likely to be asking Google.2016 March 9, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, The Guardian:
  • My “guys,” as I call the group, are loving and hilarious, serious and the epitome of love.2010, Meg Blackburn Losey, The Secret History of Consciousness: Ancient Keys to our Future Survival:

All 40 example sentences with guy

Synonyms of guy

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of guy

Forms of guy

Noun
pluralguys
pluralGuys
plural (obsolete)guies
Verb
third-person singular presentguys
present participleguying
past participleguyed
pastguyed
Proper noun
pluralGuys

Plural of guy: guys

Origin of guy

Coined by semantic widening from the name of Guy Fawkes (1570–1606), an English Catholic executed for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, which also came to refer to effigies of his image burned annually on Guy Fawkes Night. The name Guy is from Old French Gui, from a Frankish form of Proto-West Germanic *Widō (compare Old Dutch Wido), a short form of names beginning with the element *widu (“wood”), from Proto-Germanic *widuz. Cognate with Italian Guido. Doublet of guido.

From Old French guie, linked to verb guier (“guide”), from Frankish *wītan, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wītaną (“know”). Cognate with English guide.

From Old French Gui, from a Frankish form of Proto-West Germanic *Widō (compare Old Dutch Wido), a short form of names beginning with the element *widu (“wood”), from Proto-Germanic *widuz; see for example modern German Witold and Old Saxon Widukind. Cognate with Italian Guido and thus a doublet of Guido. More at wood.

Words formed from guy

Phrases with guy

11 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with guy

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about guy

What does guy mean?
Guy means an effigy of a man burned on a bonfire on the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot (5th November).
What is guy in Tamil?
Guy in Tamil is ஓர் ஆண், ஆள், விகாராமாக உடை அணிந்தவர். See Guy meaning in Tamil.
How do you use guy in a sentence?
Why are you so ashamed that her child saw you looking a guy, sprawled on the floor, spilling cakes?
What part of speech is guy?
Guy can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce guy?
Guy is pronounced /ɡaɪ/.
What is the plural of guy?
The plural of guy is guys.

Words near guy in the dictionary

  1. guvvermint
  2. guvvermints
  3. Guwahati
  4. Guwar
  5. guxen
  6. guy
  7. Guy and Pip
  8. guy code
  9. guy codes
  10. Guy Faux
  11. Guy Fawkes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: guy (page history and authors); Guy (page history and authors); guy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); guy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); బుల్లోడు (Telugu) (page history and authors); ഗെഡി (Malayalam) (page history and authors); guy (Kannada 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: en-us-guy.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Typheuss-Guy.wav.

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