BOY | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary
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English (US)

Meaning of boy in English

boy
noun [ C ]
us
/bɔɪ/ uk
/bɔɪ/
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A1
a male child or, more generally, a male of any age:
a teenage/adolescent boy
As a young boy, my father used to walk three miles to school.
You've been a very naughty boy!
little boy Their little boy is very sick.
boys and girls All right, boys and girls, settle down!
Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples
a child
  • childWhen I was a child, the summers seemed to go on forever.
  • boyThere's a new boy in my class.
  • girlThe girl's name is Sally.
  • kidI'm off to pick up the kids from school.
  • kiddieHe's taking all the neighborhood kiddies to the zoo.
  • little oneHe's got a little one at home.
See more results »
 
Flashpop/Stone/GettyImages
the boys B2 [ plural ]
a group of male friends:
He used to like spending Friday nights with the boys.
(also our boys)
an approving way of speaking about your country's soldiers:
We should not forget our boys serving far from home.
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one of the boys
a typical male:
He plays baseball, drinks a lot of beer and generally acts like one of the boys.
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More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Children & babies
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Idioms

bad/big boy
boys will be boys
my (dear) boy
the boys in blue
boy
exclamation
mainly US informal
us
/bɔɪ/ uk
/bɔɪ/
(also oh boy)
used to express excitement, worry, disappointment, etc. or to emphasize something:
Boy, that was good!
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Linguistics: interjections
See more results »
(Definition of boy from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

boy | Intermediate English

boy
noun [ C ]
us
/bɔɪ/
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a male child or, more generally, a male of any age:
Some boys were playing basketball in the schoolyard.
Boy sometimes means son:
We have two children – a boy and a girl.

Idiom

(Oh) boy!
(Definition of boy from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

BOY | Business English

BOY
noun [ U ]
  ACCOUNTING, FINANCE
uk
us
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abbreviation for beginning of year
(Definition of boy from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of boy

boy
Some boys worship their fathers, some worship themselves.
From NPR
The boy, who quit school, hoped to be a design engineer.
From CBS News
I have two girls and a boy, and they were spread out.
From The Atlantic
They spoke to a lot of the boys around the way.
From NPR
Some students raised their hands, but a few boys continued to talk to each other, or, in a couple of cases, to themselves.
From The Atlantic
Her boy was lying dead on the ground.
From International Business Times
He said the boy cried and said he was cold and wanted to go home.
From CBS News
The boys were like real brothers: they loved each other, they got into fights.
From TIME
The boys who play your sons in the film -- their voices must have broken by now.
From TIME
Her two boys have been out of school for more than a year.
From USA TODAY
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with boy

boy

These are words often used in combination with boy.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

adolescent boy
At any rate, the allowance to the adolescent boy and girl has been increased.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
baby boy
She had died in childbirth, leaving her husband with a baby boy.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
clever boy
I do not think the really clever boy or girl suffers enormously by the large classes.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with boy
What is the pronunciation of boy, BOY?
 

Translations of boy

in Chinese (Traditional)
男孩, 小夥子, 男人，男子…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
男孩, 小伙子, 男人，男子…
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in Spanish
niño, joven, chico [masculine]…
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in Portuguese
menino, garoto, moço…
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in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Dutch
in Tamil
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Russian
in Telugu
in Arabic
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
मुलगा…
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男の子, 少年, 少年（しょうねん）…
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erkek çocuk, oh be!, aman Allah'ım!…
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garçon [masculine], fils [masculine], (petit) garçon…
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nen, noi…
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jongen, -jongen…
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ஒரு ஆண் குழந்தை அல்லது, பொதுவாக, ஆணாக இருக்கும் எந்த வயதினரையும் குறிக்கும்…
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लड़का…
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છોકરો, પુત્ર…
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dreng, -dreng…
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pojke, gosse, grabb…
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anak lelaki, lelaki…
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der Knabe, der…-junge…
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gutt [masculine], du verden, gutt…
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لڑکا…
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хлопець, парубок, розсильний…
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мальчик, здорово!…
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కుర్రవాడు, మగ పిల్లవాడు, లేక సామాన్య రీతిలో ఏ వయసుకు చెందిన మగవాడైనా…
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وَلَد, طِفْل…
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ছেলে, বালক, পুরুষ…
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chlapec, -kluk, kovboj…
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anak laki-laki, pekerja laki-laki…
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เด็กผู้ชาย, ผู้ชายที่ทำงานนั้น ๆ…
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con trai, cậu thanh niên…
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chłopiec, kurczę!, chłopiec (od)…
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소년…
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bambino, figlio maschio, ragazzo…
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