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.
☞ 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. — Yellow boys, guineas. — Boy's love, a popular English name of Southernwood (Artemisia abrotonum); — called also lad's love. — Boy's play, childish amusements; anything trifling.