Boy , n. In various countries, a male servant, laborer, or slave of a native or inferior race; also, any man
of such a race.
He reverted again and again to
the labor difficulty, and spoke of importing boys from
Capetown.
Frances Macnab.
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.
Shak.
Boy (&?;), n. [Cf. D. boef, Fries. boi, boy; akin to G. bube, Icel. bofi rouge.]
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.
Sir W.
Scott.
&fist; 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.
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.
Hear it pronounced