BOY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Boy

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noun

Boy n.

1.

A male child, from birth to the age of puberty; a lad; hence, a son. "My only boy fell by the side of great Dundee." Note: Boy is often used as a term of comradeship, as in college, or in the army or navy. In the plural used colloquially of members of an associaton, fraternity, or party.

2.

In various countries, a male servant, laborer, or slave of a native or inferior race; also, any man of such a race; considered derogatory by those so called, and now seldom used. (derog.) "He reverted again and again to the labor difficulty, and spoke of importing boys from Capetown."

Boy bishop, a boy (usually a chorister) elected bishop, in old Christian sports, and invested with robes and other insignia. He practiced a kind of mimicry of the ceremonies in which the bishop usually officiated.

The Old Boy, the Devil. (Slang)

Yellow boys, guineas. (Slang, Eng.)

Boy's love, a popular English name of Southernwood (Artemisia abrotonum); called also lad's love.

Boy's play, childish amusements; anything trifling.

verb

Boy v. t. To act as a boy; in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage. "I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness."

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Etymology of 'Boy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Boy" Quotes from Famous Books

... dog. He lived in New York City. He was owned by a little boy who loved him. For Pedro had big brown eyes and curly brown hair and when he ...

— Here and Now Story Book - Two- to seven-year-olds • Lucy Sprague Mitchell

... killed father Fray Bernardo de Santo Catalina, agent of the holy office, of the order of St. Dominic ... They attacked Quiapo, and after killing about twenty people, set fire to it. Among these they burned alive a woman of rank, and a boy."—Rizal. This citation is made from Leonardo de Argensola's Conquistas de las Molucas (Madrid, 1609), a synopsis of which will ...

— History of the Philippine Islands Vols 1 and 2 • Antonio de Morga

... the boy," I said, reaching the conciliatory stage by degrees on which Raffles paid me many compliments later; but at the time he remarked, "I should say it was his ...

— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung

... To their combined horror and amazement, the young Governor did nothing of the kind. He had come, as it happened, from Salem, Ohio, one of the first towns in the United States in which a suffrage convention was held. There, as a boy, he had heard Susan B. Anthony make a speech, and he had carried into the years the impression it made upon him. He signed that bill; and, as the Legislature could not get a two-thirds vote to kill it, the disgusted members had to make the best of the matter. ...

— The Story of a Pioneer - With The Collaboration Of Elizabeth Jordan • Anna Howard Shaw

... juncture old Jose rode up with the mule-driver and took in the situation, and I directed the latter individual to tie up his pack-mule and pursue my horse at all speed. "This cross," said Jose, in response to my questions, "was placed here when I was a boy," and he recounted how it had been erected in memory of an old Spaniard, a rich landowner of that region, who had been murdered there by the lover of his wife; she a beautiful young Mexican woman. The details of the history are too long to record here, but according to the legend current among ...

— Mexico • Charles Reginald Enock

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