Word.ws English Dictionary

sideboy

sideboy noun: one of an even-numbered group of seamen posted in two rows on the quarterdeck when a visiting dignitary boards or leaves the ship, historically to help (or even hoist) him aboard.

Noun

sideboy (plural sideboys)

  1. One of an even-numbered group of seamen posted in two rows on the quarterdeck when a visiting dignitary boards or leaves the ship, historically to help (or even hoist) him aboard.
  2. (US, colloquial) A small dresser; a drinks cabinet.
    • He had a nice breath. Haig and Haig at least. ‘You've been at the sideboy again,’ I said.1940, Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, Penguin, published 2010, page 125
    • More discreetly set on the sideboy were bottles of vodka and whiskey and a box of Cuban cigars.1989, Larry Collins, Maze

Forms of sideboy

pluralsideboys

Origin of sideboy

From side + boy.

Questions about sideboy

What does sideboy mean?
Sideboy means one of an even-numbered group of seamen posted in two rows on the quarterdeck when a visiting dignitary boards or leaves the ship, historically to help (or even hoist) him aboard.
What part of speech is sideboy?
Sideboy is a noun.
What is the plural of sideboy?
The plural of sideboy is sideboys.

Words near sideboy in the dictionary

  1. Sidebothams
  2. Sidebottom
  3. Sidebottoms
  4. sidebox
  5. sideboxes
  6. sideboy
  7. sideboys
  8. sidebuffer
  9. sidebuffers
  10. sideburden
  11. sideburdens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sideboy (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sideboy.wav.

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