boy n.2
1. a hump on a person’s back; thus him and his boy, a hunchback [the hunchback is seen as carrying a small child].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Sl. Dict. 95: Boy, a hump on a man’s back. In low circles it is usual to speak of a humpbacked man as two persons – ‘him and his boy’. |
2. champagne [allegedly f. Edward VII’s habit of merely saying ‘Boy!’ to an attendant page who automatically brought him a glass of that wine; note Binstead, A Pink ’Un and a Pelican (1898) (the context is 1879): ‘The young bucks of the present day, by the way, generally allude to a bottle of champagne erroneously as “the Boy,” in evident ignorance of the origin of the term, which is as follows: At a shooting party of His Royal Highness’s, the guns were followed at a distance by a lad who wheeled a barrow-load of champagne, packed in ice. The weather was intensely close and muggy, and whenever anybody felt inclined for a drink he called out “Boy!” to the youth in attendance; the frequency with which this happened leading to the adoption of the term. It does not follow, however, that everybody who uses the word nowadays was out shooting that day with the Prince.’].
| ‘The fine young London Gentleman’ in Punch LXXXII 69/2: He’ll nothing drink but B. and S., and big magnums of the boy. | |
| Sporting Times 1 Mar. 1/4: The principal witness in the case of the British ‘boy’ which was lately before the courts was Mr. Corke. [...] The defender of home-made champagne was Mr. Goldberg. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Dead Bird (Sydney) 31 May 2/3: To drink herself silly / With creme de chantilly / And a magnum or two of ‘The Boy!’. | |
| Society Snapshots 74: What’s the matter, Daddles? — feel queer? . . . Nothing wrong with the ‘boy,’ is it? | |
| Illus. Police News 30 Dec. 6/4: To each dear little joy, you stand magnums of ‘Boy,’ / Which is slang, you must know, for champagne. | |
| Sporting Times 4 Feb. 1/1: One of the infernal nuisances of getting old is giving up champagne. But it is an old story—the old man is beaten by the boy. | |
| Harry The Cockney 274: We opened the ball, as a rule, with a pint of the ‘boy’. |
3. in homosexual senses.
(a) (gay) a male prostitute.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘Hotel Sl.’ in AS XIV:3 Oct. 239/2: boy [...] male homosexual. | |
| ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants. | |
| (ref. to 1930s) Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 5: boy (n.): A male homosexual or bellhop, especially if a prostitute or available to male patrons of the hotel. (Hotel slang, ca. Los Angeles, 1939.). | |
| Rushes (1981) 56: Gatherings brightened or rendered even more desolating by an occasional, quite often discreetly bought, ‘boy’. |
(b) (US prison) a gay prison inmate, esp. when the passive partner in a relationship with an otherwise heterosexual convict.
| Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 307: The chief cook drops in to visit ‘his’ boy. | |
| ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 24/2: BOY. Catamite. | |
| et al. DAUL 33/1: Boy. A passive pederast. | |
| In For Life 101: Why don’t you get yourself a boy and settle down? | |
| , | | DAS. |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Outside In I ii: Not me boy. No way. | |
| Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 174: They even competed for control of gay men — whom they called ‘boys’. |
(c) (US gay) in sado-masochistic sex, the passive or subservient partner.
| Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. [Internet] boy — 1) a butch or male submissive or bottom, frequently one who role-plays as young 2) a boyish butch lesbian. |
4. in drug uses.
(a) heroin [the image of heroin as a ‘masculine’ drug, i.e. one that ‘knocks you down’, rather than cocaine or girl n.2 (1), the injecting of which gives a sexual thrill (although heroin, too, has that effect on some users)].
| ‘Narcotic Argot Along the Mexican Border’ in AS XXX:2 86: BOY, n. Heroin, as opposed to girl, cocaine, and Dona Juanita, marijuana. | |
| Scene (1996) 60: Boy is the junkie’s name for heroin; they call cocaine girl because it gives ’em a sexual jab when they take a shot. | |
| Patrolman 167: Whether you call it horse [...] boy, Harry, or Scot, it’s still heroin. | |
| Runnin’ Down Some Lines 172: Several terms were used to characterize heroin – H, skag, boy, horse, stuff. | |
| Homeboy 18: It’s no coincidence that cocaine and heroin are called boy and girl on the street. | |
| Another Day in Paradise 238: Got cash, boy and girl. It’s yours. | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 4: Boy — [...] heroin. |
(b) cocaine [may be a misreading].
| cited in Sl. and Jargon of Drugs and Drink (1986). | |
| ONDCP Street Terms 4: Boy — Cocaine. |
In compounds
see separate entry.
In phrases
(drugs) a surreptitious request for heroin.
| ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ AS XXVII:1 25: DO YOU NEED A BOY? phr. Have you any drugs for sale? |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
a boy who exists simply as a sex object for his homosexual partners.
| ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants. | |
| Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 5: boy-ass (n.): Generic for boy or young man who is the sexual object of a pedicator (pederast). | |
| Q&A 150: Mauricio says the men will not stay on the boat with Roger, that he wants to bring his boy-ass aboard. |
(US) a bar primarily used by male homosexuals.
| Plainclothes Naked (2002) 270: The he ups and brains some butt-rustler in a goddam boy bar. |
see blue boy n.2
(Aus.) a man, esp. a prisoner, who specializes in seducing young men.
| Argot in DAUS (1993). |
a general term of affection between males; a man who acts like a child.
| Awake and Sing! II i: Don’t cry, boychick. | |
| (con. 1910s) Hoods (1953) 16: Pleased to meet up with you boytchicks. | |
| Time Remembered (1985) 114: Don’t get upset with me, boychick. | |
| Cannibals 103: Okey-dokey, boychik. | |
| New Yorker 7 Mar. 94: Reggie shouldn’t have had to be the bouncing boychick even in his dealings with his wife. | |
| (con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 221: Go home, boychiks. | |
| (con. 1964–8) Cold Six Thousand 22: Ruby yukked. Boychik — you slay me. |
(US gay) a boyish ‘masculine’ lesbian.
| Rebecca’s Dict. of Queer Sl. [Internet] boydyke — a boyish butch lesbian. |
a school; thus boy-farmer, a school-teacher.
 | News from Nowhere (2008) 26: I had best say nothing about the boy-farms which I had been used to call schools . | |
| Daily Chronicle 16 Sept. 2/6: The professional boy-farmers [...] are naturally trying to supply what is desired . |
1. (US) a term of address between men, rarely affectionate.
| Playback 196: Listen boy friend, I’m a pretty big man in this town. |
2. (US campus) any attractive man one does not know.
| Campus Sl. Apr. 2: boyfriend – good-looking male one has never seen before: ‘Where did that guy come from – he’s a boyfriend.’. |
see boy-girl n.1
see separate entry.
a teller of secrets.
| Life and Times of James Catnach 329: There was a street-saying much in vogue, of ‘That Boy Jones again’, which was used to cover or account for all petty delinquencies in public or domestic life. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era. |
a daredevil young car-driver; the term implies disdain for such puerile antics.
| Guardian 14 Feb. [Internet] Ask the average road user what image is conjured up by the phrase ‘boy racer’ and they are likely to describe a strutting adolescent driving an Escort XR3i, with spoilers, yellow foglights and extra bass speakers, who practises handbrake turns in the local car park. | |
| Gutted 212: [of a VW Corrado] ’Tis what ye might call popular with a certain section of the community.’ ‘Fucking boy racers.’. | |
| Insidious Intent (2018) 92: [T]he perfect drag strip for boy racers to burn rubber in their pimped-out hatchbacks, the roar of their phat exhausts splitting skulls. |
(US teen) a policeman.
| Summerfield Sun (KS) 9 Jan. 2/3: Teen Talk Glossary [...] Boy scout — Policeman. |
(bingo) the number 16.
| DSUE (8th edn) 127/2: since ca. 1955. |
(Aus. prison) a prison which abounds in petty rules.
| Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. [Internet] Boy’s gaol [...] used derisively by experienced prisoners in describing prisons where the regime is seen to be petty. |
(US) gay sex.
| Way Past Cool 34: That one night when they’d tried boy stuff together. |
see boychick
1. (US gay) the penis.
| (ref. to 1950s) Queens’ Vernacular 48: the penis [...] boy toy (’50s, especially when manipulated by a masturbator). |
2. see toy boy under toy n.1
In phrases
1. (Irish) stew, the food [rhy. sl.].
| Und. Speaks 12/1: Boy in blue, a tasteful stew. | |
| ‘“Aus.” Rhyming Argot’ in AS XIX:3. |
2. see boys in blue n.
the clitoris.
| Sl. of Venery I 22: Boy in the Boat — The clitoris. | |
| ‘The Boy in the Boat’ in Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) I 176: Lift up your skirt, gal, an’ gimme a breeze, / What am I gonna do with all this cheese? / The Boy in the Boat! The Boy in the Boat! | |
| ‘The Boy in the Boat’ [lyrics] Face is still wrinkled, and his breath smells like soap, / Still talkin’ ’bout that boy in the boat. | |
| 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | |
| Queens’ Vernacular. | |
| Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 131: Boy in the boat (clitoris, button, dot joy buzzer, cockpit). | |
| (con. 1910s) Livin’ the Blues 36: At an early age we talked about a ‘purr-tongue’ or a ‘boy-in-the-boat’. |
a thug, a hoodlum.
| Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 7: The Buffers, both boys of the Holy Ground [...] It is almost needless to add that the Holy Ground, or Land, is a well-known region of St. Giles’s. |
(Anglo-Irish) the joker in a pack of cards.
| DSUE (1984) 127/2: late C.19–20. |
In exclamations
(US) a mild excl.
| Adventures of a Boomer Op. 11: Boy Howdy, he had lost all the religion he ever did have. | |
| ‘Art for Artie’ in Argosy All-Story 30 Dec. [Internet] Boy, howdy! The titles alone would have made you seasick! |