boy

Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing.

Interjection

  1. Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing.
    • Boy, that was close!
    • Boy, that tastes good!
    • Boy, I wish I could go to Canada!

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰā- Proto-Germanic *bō- Proto-West Germanic *bōjō Old English *bōia Middle English boye English boy From Middle English boy /boye (“servant, commoner, knave, boy”), from Old English *bōia (“boy”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōjō, from Proto-Germanic *bōjô (“younger brother, young male relation”), from Proto-Germanic *bō- (“brother, close male relation”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰā-, *bʰāt- (“father, elder brother, brother”). Cognate with Scots boy (“boy”), West Frisian boai (“boy”), Dutch boi (“boy”), Low German Boi (“boy”), and probably to the Old English proper name Bōia. Also related to West Flemish boe (“brother”), Norwegian dialectal boa (“brother”), Dutch boef (“rogue, knave”), Bavarian Bua (“young boy, lad”), German Bube ("boy; knave; jack"; > English bub), Icelandic bófi (“rogue, crook, bandit, knave”), Lombard bagaj. See also bully.

Related

oh boy

Noun

  1. A male child.
    • Kieran plays football with other boys in his school.
    • The ſtretes of the cite alſo ſhalbe full of yonge boyes and damſelles, playnge vpon the ſtretes. - 1535 October 14 (Gregorian calendar), Myles Coverdale, transl., Biblia: The Byble, […] (Coverdale Bible), [Cologne or...
    • I find I was mistaken in the sex, it is a boy. - 1711 March 17 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Jonathan Swift, “[Dr. Swift’s Journal to Stella.] Letter XVII.”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of...
  2. A young man.
    • Kate is dating a boy named Jim.
  3. A son of any age.
    • Low as that tide has ebbed with me, / It still reflects to memory’s eye / The hour, my brave, my only boy, / Fell by the side of great Dundee. - 1805, Walter Scott, “Canto Fourth”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A...
    • I tried. I tried. But he wouldn't listen. My boy was stubborn. My boy was strong. And he was gonna get himself killed. Now I told him, I told him I did it too. That I was like Hoffman, getting by, and that's what you...
  4. A male human younger than the speaker.
  5. A male human of any age, as opposed to a "girl" (female human of any age).
    • boys' club
    • "My dear girl, what has he done?" said Mrs. Mallowe, sweetly. It is noticeable that ladies of a certain age call each other "dear girl," just as commissioners of twenty-eight years' standing address their equals in the...
    • It opened up a whole range [of feelings]. Some of them we were prepared for ― like for some women to feel some of the images were anti-feminist […] One woman wrote, "I can see the boys have taught you well." "Macho...
  6. A male of low station, (especially as pejorative) a worthless male, a wretch; a mean and dishonest male, a knave.
    • Do’ſt thou call mee foole boy? - c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel...
  7. A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee, particularly:
    • He allowed his ‘boy’ - an overfed young negro from the coast - to treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking insolence. - 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh...
    • “Why does he go out and pinch all his dogs in person? He’s an administrator, isn’t he? Wouldn’t he hire a boy or something?” “We call them ‘staff,’” Roger replies, […] - 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, 1st US...

    1. A younger such worker.

      • I resolved to continue in the Cave, with my two Servants, my Maid, and a Boy, whom I had brought from France. - 1721, Penelope Aubin, The Life of Madam de Beaumount, ii, 36:

    2. (historical or offensive) A non-white male servant regardless of age, particularly as a form of address.

      • My Boy Stephen Grauener. - 1625, W. Hawkins in Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes, Vol. I, iii, vii, 211
      • They picked out two of the strongest of the Boys (as they call the Men) about the place. - 1834, Edward Markham, New Zealand or Recollections of It, section 72:
      • The blacks who work on a station or farm are always, like the blacks in the Southern States, called boys. - 1876, Ebenezer Thorne, The Queen of the Colonies, or, Queensland as I Knew It, section 58:

    3. (obsolete) A male camp follower.

      • If any water be rough and boysterous, or the chanell verye broade, it manye times drowneth the carriages and the boyes and nowe and then slouthfull and lyther souldiours. - 1572, Flavius Vegetius Renatus, translated by...
      • Godes plud kil the boyes and the lugyge, Tis the arrants peece of knauery[…] - 1599 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, […] (First Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for...
  8. Any non-white male, regardless of age.
    • A Hottentot... expects to be called by his name if addressed by any one who knows it; and by those to whom it is not known he expects to be called Hottentot... or boy. - 1812, Anne Plumptre translating Hinrich...
    • Every darky, however old, is a boy. - 1888, Louis Diston Powles, Land of Pink Pearl, or Recollections of Life in the Bahamas, section 66:
    • [In Alabama,] Guards still use the term ‘boy’ to refer to Black prisoners. - 1973 September 8, Black Panther, 7/2:
  9. A male friend.
    • hanging with my boys
    • The next thing I remember, I am walking down the street / I'm feeling all right, I'm with my boys, I'm with my troops, yeah. - 1980, Paul Simon, “Late in the Evening”, in One-Trick Pony:
  10. A male submissive.
  11. A male non-human animal, especially, in affectionate address, a male pet, especially a dog.
    • C'mere, boy! Good boy! Who's a good boy?
    • Are you getting a boy cat or a girl cat?
  12. A former low rank of various armed services; a holder of this rank.
    • Wounded... 1 Boy, 1st class, severely. - 1841 May 6, Times, London, 5/4:
    • He joined the Navy as a boy second class in 1898. - 1963 April 30, Times, London, 16/2:

Forms

boys boyz boi

Synonyms

chap guy lad mate son manservant brat knave squirt heroin bhoy boy boykin boyo callant chav feely-omi little boy man child manling page pillicock sapling shaveling

Antonyms

girl man

Hypernyms

child

Derived

aceboy all-boys all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy alphabet boy altar boy antiboy area boy attaboy atta boy baby boy backroom boy bad-boy bad boy bag boy bagboy ball boy banjee boy barboy Barnardo's boy barra boy barrow-boy barrow boy Barry boy bat boy

Verb

  1. 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. - c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...

Forms

boys boying boyed