doughboys

dough·boy

[doh-boi]
noun
1.
Informal. an American infantryman, especially in World War I.
2.
a rounded mass of dough, boiled or steamed as a dumpling or deep-fried and served as a hot bread.
Origin:
1675–85; dough + boy; sense “infantryman,” from mid-1860s, is obscurely derived; two plausible, but unsubstantiated claims: doughboy orig. referred to the globular brass buttons on infantry uniforms, likened to the pastry; dough referred to a clay used to clean the white uniform belts

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Doughboys is always a great word to know.
So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:
the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
doughboy (ˈdəʊˌbɔɪ) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
1.  informal (US) an infantryman, esp in World War I
2.  dough that is boiled or steamed as a dumpling

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

doughboy
"U.S. soldier," 1865, said to have been in oral use from 1854, or from the Mexican-American War (1847), it is perhaps from resemblance of big buttons on old uniforms to biscuits of that name, but there are various other conjectures.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

doughboys definition


United States infantry soldiers who served in World War I.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary

doughboys definition


  1. n.
    the female breasts. : What a nice pair of doughboys!
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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