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BOY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A friendly informal reference to a grown man
Example:
he likes to play golf with the boys
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("boy" is a kind of...):
adult male; man (an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boy"):
broth of a boy; broth of a man (an outstanding person; as if produced by boiling down a savory broth)
one of the boys (a man who has been socially accepted into a group of other men)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A youthful male person
Example:
most soldiers are only boys in uniform
Synonyms:
boy; male child
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("boy" is a kind of...):
male; male person (a person who belongs to the sex that cannot have babies)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boy"):
altar boy (a boy serving as an acolyte)
ball boy (a boy who retrieves balls for tennis players)
bat boy ((baseball) a boy who takes care of bats and other baseball equipment)
cub; lad; laddie; sonny; sonny boy (a male child (a familiar term of address to a boy))
catamite (a boy who submits to a sexual relationship with a man)
farm boy (a boy who has grown up on a farm)
Fauntleroy; Little Lord Fauntleroy (an excessively polite and well-dressed boy)
ploughboy; plowboy (a boy who leads the animals that draw a plow)
schoolboy (a boy attending school)
Scout (a Boy Scout or Girl Scout)
shop boy (a young male shop assistant)
Antonym:
girl (a youthful female person)
Derivation:
boyhood (the childhood of a boy)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A male human offspring
Example:
his boy is taller than he is
Synonyms:
boy; son
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("boy" is a kind of...):
male offspring; man-child (a child who is male)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boy"):
Jnr; Jr; Junior (a son who has the same first name as his father)
mama's boy; mamma's boy; mother's boy (a boy excessively attached to his mother; lacking normal masculine interests)
Instance hyponyms:
Esau ((Old Testament) the eldest son of Isaac who would have inherited the covenant that God made with Abraham and that Abraham passed on to Isaac; he traded his birthright to his twin brother Jacob for a mess of pottage)
Antonym:
girl (a female human offspring)
Context examples:
These androgens are produced in higher quantities in male than in female foetuses on average, so might also explain why autism occurs more often in boys.
(High levels of oestrogen in the womb linked to autism, University of Cambridge)
There is a character, a little indigenous boy, who represents the Amazonian culture.
(Brazilian professor creates mobile game that combines fun with mathematics, Agência Brasil)
“You're the new boy?” he said.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
A lipoma usually occuring in the extremities of young children (usually boys).
(Lipoblastoma, NCI Thesaurus)
It usually affects boys and there is a history of trauma.
(Periosteal Desmoid Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)
With treatment, most boys grow up to have normal lives.
(Klinefelter's Syndrome, NIH: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development)
Well, Buck, my boy, he went on in a genial voice, we’ve had our little ruction, and the best thing we can do is to let it go at that.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
At last, however, she found a boy who was handsome and manly and wise beyond his years.
(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)
He was a boy of singular talent and fancy.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Wake that poor boy, and let him come and see the last; he trusts us, and we have promised him.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
