Word.ws English Dictionary

old boy

old boy noun: an alumnus, especially of a public school.

Noun

old boy (plural old boys)

  1. (UK) An alumnus, especially of a public school.
  2. A former member of a group.
    • Swansea named an unchanged side from their win over West Brom, and the visitors made an encouraging start, with Blues old boy Scott Sinclair prominent - Branislav Ivanovic had to make an important block to halt the winger's run.2011 September 24, Aled Williams, “Chelsea 4 - 1 Swansea”, in BBC Sport
  3. A man with an established network of friends who assist one another in social and business situations; a good old boy.
    • The fact that they have waited to leave messages and have left hand-written evidence indicates to me that they don't believe they are going to be apprehended, that they have friends in 'higher places.' This is a small town. Everybody knows everybody. That 'ol boy' chuminess ^([sic]).1983 February 12, Jil Clark, quoting Kiriyo Spooner, “Northampton Lesbians Fight Hate Campaign”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 29, page 3
  4. (UK, informal) An elderly man.
    • I got talking to an old boy in the pub, and he told me what the village used to be like in the old days.
  5. (UK, dated) A familiar term of address for a man of any age.
    • Listen, old boy, I've got some news.

old boy meaning in Urdu and Kannada

old boy in Urdu

سابق طالب علم

old boy in Kannada

ಹಳೆಯ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ, ಹಿರಿಯ ವಿದ್ಯಾರ್ಥಿ, ಹಿರಿಯ ವ್ಯಾಸಂಗಿ

Forms of old boy

pluralold boys
alternative formOB

Words formed from old boy

Questions about old boy

What does old boy mean?
Old boy means an alumnus, especially of a public school.
What is old boy in Urdu?
Old boy in Urdu is سابق طالب علم. See Old boy meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is old boy?
Old boy is a noun.
What is the plural of old boy?
The plural of old boy is old boys.

Words near old boy in the dictionary

  1. Old Blue
  2. Old Bolingbroke
  3. Old Bolshevik
  4. Old Bonalbo
  5. Old Bourbon
  6. old boy
  7. old boy network
  8. old boy networks
  9. old boyism
  10. old boys
  11. old boys' club

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: old boy (page history and authors); old boy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); old boy (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-old boy.wav.

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