lad
/læd/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northumbria/laːd/
lad noun: a boy or young man.
Noun (1)
lad (plural lads)
- A boy or young man.
- How great is that danger, to which poor lads are now exposed, when placed on shipboard to learn the art of sailing! Five lads, training up for the seas, were now on board this ship; […]1776, John Woolman, chapter XI, in A Journal of the Life, Gospel Labours, and Christian Experiences of that Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ, John Woolman, […] , Dublin: Printed by R. Jackson, page...
- The lad, his son, had obtained a Jew's-harp, and learned to play upon it the profane airs of "Yankee Doodle," "Hail Columbia," "St. Patrick's Day," and "Auld Lang Syne."1850, T. S. Arthur, “Deacon Smith and his Violin”, in Sketches of Life and Character, Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 70
- A hedonistic or irresponsible young man; A Jack the lad.
- I think he reckons he’s a bit of a lad.
- Last night I was out drinking with the lads.
- A familiar term of address for a young man.
- Come here, lad, and help me shift these boxes.
- A groom who works with horses.
- Synonyms:
- stable boy, stable lad
- The penis.
- — The lad stood to attention anyhow, he said with a sigh. She's a gamey mare and no mistake.1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, page 225
- Mrs Glynn: Oh but there's this great bit in it. You see, there was this girl, but then you find out it's not a girl but a man!
Mrs Sheridan: And he got his lad out.1995 May 5, Graham Linehan, Arthur Matthews, “The Passion of St Tibulus”, in Father Ted
- A scammer.
- [...] regardless whether you feel the lads may deserve to be subjected to those types of images.2020 March 11, Rover, “*** 419 EATER FORUM RULES - PLEASE READ ***”, in 419 Eater
Noun (2) capitalized: LAD
LAD (countable and uncountable, plural LADs)
- Abbreviation of left anterior descending artery.
- Initialism of local authority district.
- Initialism of language acquisition device.
- Initialism of leukocyte adhesion deficiency.
lad meaning in Hindi, Odia, Arabic and Persian
lad in Hindi
- a boy or young man
- बालक bālak, लड़का laṛkā
lad in Odia
- a boy or young man
- ବାଳ bāḻa
lad in Arabic
- a boy or young man
- شَابّ šābb, فَتًى fatan
lad in Persian
- a boy or young man
- رایکا râykâ
Examples of lad in a sentence
- He's rather a lad, by the way—or used to be in his flying days.1929, Agatha Christie, The Seven Dials Mystery:
- Just thinking about how she would look without her clothes made his lad twitch with anticipation.2010, Loucinda McGary, The Wild Irish Sea: A Windswept Tale of Love and Magic, →ISBN, page 11:
Synonyms of lad
Forms of lad
| plural | lads |
|---|---|
| plural | LADs |
Origin of lad
From Middle English ladde (“foot soldier, servant; male commoner; boy”), from late Old English *ladda (attested in Old English personal byname Ladda), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Old Norse ladd (“hose, woolen stocking; sock”), which may have undergone semantic shift to mean a term of abuse (e.g. foolish youth, youngster of lower social status, etc.); thence by connotative amelioration coming to mean any young fellow. Compare Norwegian ladd (“rough sock, woolen or felt slipper”) and the -ladd in compounds Askeladd/Askeladden (a nickname in fairy tales, "Ash Lad") and tusseladd (“nincompoop”). See also Swedish ladder (“old shoes”), lodde (“Frisian shoe”), lädder (“socks”), all said to be related to Old Norse loðinn (“hairy, shaggy, woolly”), loddi (“shaggy dog”).
Words formed from lad
- bad-lad split
- booking lad
- currency lad
- feller-me-lad
- fellermelad
- fellow me lad
- fellow-me-lad
- flat lad
- follow-me-lad
- Goodlad
- head lad
- lad culture
- laddess
- laddie
- laddish
- laddism
- laddock
- laddy
- ladette
- ladhood
- ladkin
- ladlike
- lad lit
- ladlit
- lad mag
- lad of wax
- lad's love
- ladsy
- lavender lad
- likely lad
- mad lad
- merlad
- new lad
- signal lad
- tits out for the lads
- Yule lad
Phrases with lad
Words that rhyme with lad
Questions about lad
- What does lad mean?
- Lad means a boy or young man.
- What is lad in Hindi?
- Lad in Hindi is बालक (bālak), लड़का (laṛkā). See Lad meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use lad in a sentence?
- He's rather a lad, by the way—or used to be in his flying days.
- What part of speech is lad?
- Lad is a noun.
- How do you pronounce lad?
- Lad is pronounced /læd/.
- What is the plural of lad?
- The plural of lad is lads.
Words near lad in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lad (page history and authors); LAD (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-lad.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lad.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lad. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.