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boy

[boi]

Example Sentences Origin

noun

a male child, from birth to full growth, especially one less than 18 years of age.

a young man who lacks maturity, judgment, etc.

Informal. a grown man, especially when referred to familiarly: He liked to play poker with the boys.

a son: Sam's oldest boy is helping him in the business.

a male who is from or native to a given place.

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boys, (used with a singular or plural verb)

a range of sizes from 8 to 20 in garments made for boys.

a garment in this size range.

the department or section of a store where these garments are sold.

boys, military personnel, especially combat soldiers: Support the boys overseas.

Disparaging and Offensive. a man considered by the speaker to be inferior in race, nationality, or occupational status.

a young male servant; page.

10.

Offensive. (in India, China, Japan, etc.) a native male servant, working as a butler, waiter, houseboy, etc.

11.

Nautical. an apprentice seaman or fisherman.

COLLAPSE

interjection

12.

an exclamation of wonder, approval, etc., or of displeasure or contempt.

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Boy is always a great word to know.

So is doohickey. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

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Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English boy(e), perhaps after Old English Bōia man's name; cognate with Frisian boi young man; akin to Old English bōfa, Old Norse bōfi, Old High German Buobo man's name (German Bube knave, (dial.) boy, lad)

Can be confused: boy, buoy.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To boy

Example Sentences

The boy admitted fatally shooting his father and another man.

He was a pharmacist too but he died young-a farm boy of terrific ambition who made something of himself.

But barely a third of the audience opted to watch the boy wizard battle his snake-faced foe in three dimensions.

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The boy admitted fatally shooting his father and another man.

He was a pharmacist too but he died young-a farm boy of terrific ambition who made something of himself.

But barely a third of the audience opted to watch the boy wizard battle his snake-faced foe in three dimensions.

Ever since, rumors have swirled that a blow to the head had killed the boy king.

There are plenty of old wives' tales regarding how to tell whether a pregnant woman is going to have a boy or a girl.

The boy does not have a name, but he is not unknown.

The boy who won't let his brother use the binoculars.

How much a mother eats at the time of conception may influence whether she gives birth to a boy or a girl, a new report shows.

Any man who was once a boy who needed to prove himself.

The boy said that he needed the money to pay for computer lessons.

They read about a boy who discovers a butterfly and how his discovery is added to a tally card.

At first glance you might not notice anything odd on meeting a young boy with autism.

It was a tale, told with puppets and masked characters, of a jaguar who is turned into a boy.

And manga is all around us, especially if you're a parent of a boy.

The days of dramatic gestures by boy heroes are long over.

After playing to the audience some more, the boy leapt headfirst toward the ground.

Wisseman still doesn't know whether this mummy is a boy or girl, for example.

Nearby, a teenage boy snapped photos of his friends with a cellphone.

They mix in dried raspberries to give it that beautiful color, and boy is it delicious.

Buffett, however, is not really the small-town boy made good.

The short life history of this little boy would have to be reconstructed entirely from clues hidden in his tiny torso.

Instead of a journey too close to the sun, a boy travels through deep space and challenges the power of black holes.

Indeed, the catfish po' boy sandwich is pretty darn close to perfection when it comes to a catfish encounter.

As a boy he was fascinated by games of all sorts, from pinochle to chess.

Then the man had the luck to catch a red plastic horn, but when he looked for the boy, the boy was not there.

Sparc boy empty intellectualizing what a creative term.

If you were once a young boy of a certain kind, you had models of many of these planes hanging from your ceiling.

As your correspondent spoke to a monk in the backroom of a monastery, a teenage boy rushed in and prostrated himself before him.

When the bus returned, the vulture would be there and follow the boy home.

That's when he learned that one of the women in the family was four months pregnant with a boy.

The result-a young boy embracing his mother or teenagers sneaking a first kiss-is often exceptionally intimate.

Rockefeller decided it was time to sell shares when even a shoe-shine boy offered him a share tip.

Now, the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of a carriage boy who learned the secret vows to find the treasure.

Officers who discovered the bodies found an unharmed seven-month-old boy still sitting in his car seat.

The finding prompted the theory that the boy king was murdered by a blow to the head during the unsettled period of his reign.

Soon after that, his parents recall, the boy began stuttering.

My oldest boy has schizphrenia and my younger boy is bi-polar.

It's not likely the boy found the idea interesting because it was counterintuitive.

So the scientists got to wondering: what would happen if they gave a boy squirrel monkey the same opsin that girls have.

The boy was perhaps seven or eight, although he could have been older: among other things, the disease that afflicts him stunts.

They are not seafaring boy scouts, keeping the sea lanes free of litter.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

boy (bɔɪ)

—n
1.	a male child; lad; youth
2.	a man regarded as immature or inexperienced: he's just a boy when it comes to dealing with women
3.	See old boy
4.	informal a group of men, esp a group of friends
5.	derogatory usually (esp in former colonial territories) a Black person or native male servant of any age
6.	(Austral) a jockey or apprentice
7.	short for boyfriend
8.	boys will be boys youthful indiscretion or exuberance must be expected and tolerated
9.	informal jobs for the boys appointment of one's supporters to posts, without reference to their qualifications or ability
10.	informal (Irish) the boy the right tool for a particular task: that's the boy to cut it

—*interj*
11.	an exclamation of surprise, pleasure, contempt, etc: boy, is he going to be sorry!

[C13 (in the sense: male servant; C14: young male): of uncertain origin; perhaps from Anglo-French abuié fettered (unattested), from Latin boia fetter]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

boy

mid-12c., boie "servant, commoner, knave, boy," possibly from O.Fr. embuie "one fettered," from V.L. *imboiare, from L. boia "leg iron, yoke, leather collar," from Gk. boeiai dorai "ox hides." But it also appears to be identical with E.Fris. boi "young gentleman," and perhaps with Du. boef "knave,"

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from M.Du. boeve, perhaps from M.L.G. buobe. This suggests a gradational relationship to babe. Used slightingly of young men in M.E.; meaning "male negro slave or Asian personal servant of any age" attested from c.1600. (Words for "boy" double as "servant, attendant" across the I.E. map -- e.g. It. ragazzo, Fr. garçon, M.E. knave, O.C.S. otroku -- and often it is difficult to say which meaning came first.) Amer.Eng. expression oh, boy attested from 1917.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

boy

In addition to the idiom beginning with boys, also see fair-haired boy; mama's boy; separate the men from the boys; whipping boy.

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