boy

Less common meanings

9. 9
   nounoffensivedatedcountable or uncountable

   A male servant or employee of any age, especially a non-white man addressed this way.

   The colonel sent his boy, a grizzled servant of fifty, ahead to the station with the luggage.

   He allowed his ‘boy’ - an overfed young negro from the coast - to treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking insolence.

   1899, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”

   UsageFor a male worker, say staff member or name the job, such as waiter or driver.

   Similarservant, manservant, attendant

   Note

   A word that writers were uneasy with long before it fell out of use. Conrad already sets "boy" apart in The Heart of Darkness (1899). Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (1973) shows the correction happening: asked whether a man wouldn't simply "hire a boy or something," another character replies, "We call them 'staff.'" That swap is the safe one today. Outside some Commonwealth countries, the word in this sense is rare and usually offensive. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness was first published in 1899. en.wikipedia.org
   • Conrad sets the servant sense of boy apart with quotation marks. gutenberg.org
   • Thomas Pynchon wrote Gravity’s Rainbow, first published in 1973. en.wikipedia.org
   • A character asks about hiring a boy, and another replies that they are called staff. penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com
10. 10
    objectnouncolloquialendearingcountable or uncountable

    Any tangible object close at hand, referred to playfully or emphatically, often in phrases such as 'bad boy.'

    Strap this bad boy to the roof rack and we're ready to camp.

    "These bad boys can tow three tons each," the salesman said, slapping the truck's hood.

    UsageUsually this bad boy or these bad boys, said with mock pride about a machine or gadget.

    Note

    Applied to a machine or gadget, the word personifies the object with mock pride, and bad here is praise rather than blame. It is the language of showing something off.

11. 11
    racial insultnounoffensivecountable or uncountable

    An offensive way of referring to or addressing a non-white male, regardless of his age.

    'Move along, boy,' the patrolman said to the elderly Black minister.

    'We don't serve your kind here, boy,' the white clerk told the gray-haired Black veteran.

    UsageUsing boy to belittle a man because of his race is racist. Say man, or use his name or title.

    Note

    Where the servant usage tied the word to a job, this one needs only race. The usage is old. Hinrich Lichtenstein's Travels in Southern Africa (1812) records that strangers who did not know a Khoikhoi man's name simply called him boy. In 1973 the Black Panther reported Alabama guards still using it for Black prisoners. At the 1979 Logie Awards, Muhammad Ali stopped the room to ask, "Did you say 'Roy' or 'boy'?" Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Hinrich Lichtenstein wrote Travels in Southern Africa; its first English volume appeared in 1812. en.wikipedia.org
    • The book records boy as an address used by people who did not know a Khoikhoi man's name, supporting the statement that the usage is old. en.wiktionary.org
    • The Black Panther reported in 1973 that Alabama guards still called Black prisoners boy. en.wiktionary.org
    • At the 1979 Logie Awards, Muhammad Ali interrupted proceedings and asked the quoted question. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    heroinnounslangUSuncountable

    A slang term for heroin, used especially in US street and drug culture.

    The crew moved boy out of the back of the barbershop, a few grams at a time.

    She said she'd been buying boy from the same dealer for years.

    Similarheroin, smack, horse, junk, skag

    Note

    Unlike the word for a person, this one is a mass noun. You get some boy, not a boy. Tim Weber's Gutters & Roses (2008) has its narrator ask street dealers where he could "get some boy." It is US slang from the drug trade, so it fits dialogue, reporting or fiction about that world rather than ordinary description. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Tim Weber wrote Gutters & Roses, published in 2008. authorhouse.com
13. 13
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    A male camp follower; a man or youth who accompanied an army to perform menial work for the soldiers.

    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, Foure Bookes... Contayninge a Plaine Forme

    Note

    Armies once marched with their boys: servants and baggage hands who traveled with the soldiers but did not fight. John Sadler's 1572 translation of Vegetius lists them with the carriages as what a rough river might drown. In Shakespeare's Henry V, Captain Fluellen rages that the enemy has killed the boys and the luggage, pairing them the same way. The sense is obsolete, so in older military writing the boys may be grown men. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • Armies were accompanied by civilian servants and baggage workers who provided services rather than serving as fighting soldiers. en.wikipedia.org
    • John Sadler's English translation of Vegetius was published in 1572. name.umdl.umich.edu
    • The translation groups the boys with carriages among things that rough water can drown. en.wiktionary.org
    • Captain Fluellen condemns the killing of the boys in Shakespeare's Henry V, mentioning boys and luggage together. folger.edu
    • The obsolete military sense denotes a male camp follower and does not necessarily indicate a child. en.wiktionary.org
14. 14
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    A man of low station; especially, as an insult, a worthless or dishonest man: a wretch or knave.

    Do’ſt thou call mee foole boy?

    c. 1603, [William Shakespeare], His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. (First Quarto)

    Note

    Here boy says nothing about age and everything about rank and worth. It is the contemptuous side of the medieval word. When Shakespeare writes "Dost thou call me fool, boy?" the last word can be read as an insult rather than a remark on youth. Because the sense is obsolete, a "base boy" in older texts may well be a grown man. A modern reader should treat it as a slur on character rather than on age. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • An obsolete sense of boy refers to low station or contemptible character rather than necessarily to age. en.wiktionary.org
    • This contemptuous sense existed in medieval English. en.wiktionary.org
    • Shakespeare wrote the quoted words; Lear speaks them to the Fool in King Lear, Act 1, scene 4. folger.edu
    • In the obsolete contemptuous sense, a base boy can be an adult, and the expression can disparage character rather than age. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    noun

    A male submissive; a man who takes the obedient, serving role in a BDSM relationship or dynamic.
16. 16
    noun

    A former low rank in various armed services; also, a person holding that rank.

    Wounded... 1 Boy, 1st class, severely.

    1841, Times, London
17. 17
    verbrare

    To act or represent in the manner of a boy, alluding to the former practice of boys playing women's parts on the stage.

    I shall see some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness.

    c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”