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boy, v.

DRAFT REVISION June 2009

Brit. /b/, U.S. /b/  [< BOY n.¹ Compare MAN v., WOMAN v., GIRL v.¹] 

    1. trans.

    a. To address (a person) as ‘boy’.
  Esp. with a man as object, with belittling implication.

1573 G. HARVEY Let.-bk. (1884) 48 If he boied me now..I hard him not. a1625 F. BEAUMONT & J. FLETCHER Knight of Malta II iii, in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Kkkkk3/1, Boy did he call me..I am tainted..Baffell'd, and boy'd.

1851 DICKENS & M. LEMON Mr. Nightingale's Diary (1877) I. 5 Lithers. Here you are, my boy. Tip. (much offended) My boy! Who are you boying of! 1913 B. TARKINGTON Flirt 96 ‘Boy?’.. Do I hear aright? Sir, do you boy me?.. I am the stature of a man; had it not been for your razor I should wear the beard of a man; therefore I'll not be boyed. 1965 E. MPHAHLELE Down Second Ave 152, I was ‘jimmed’ and ‘boy-ed’ and ‘john-ed’ by whites. 2002 J. BREWSTER Vicar of Afton vii. 63 ‘Easy, boy! I'll handle this! Just cool down!’ ‘Don't “boy” me!’

    b. To treat (a person) like a boy; to patronize. In early use also refl.: to behave like a boy.

a1625 J. FLETCHER Island Princesse II. i. in F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Comedies & Trag. (1647) 104 My countenance, it shames me, One scarce arrived, not harden'd yet, not Read in dangers and great deeds, sea-sick, not season'dOh I have boy'd my selfe. 1650 T. VAUGHAN Anima Magica 46, I know the world will be ready to Boy me out of Countenance for this, because my yeares are few, and green.

2002 Chicago Rev. (Nexis) 48 32 It should shame me to be so boyed by a senior at Brentwood Highall my eighteenness, all my parochial school, falling out like so much stuffing. 2006 Times (Nexis) 30 Jan. (Times2 section) 4 If they [sc. young people] feel they have been disrespected they don't say ‘dissed’ any more but say that they have been ‘boyed’, as in looked down upon.

    2. trans. Of a boy actor: to portray (a woman or her qualities) on the stage. In later use hist., freq. echoing quot. a1616.

a1616 SHAKESPEARE Antony & Cleopatra (1623) V. ii. 216, I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra Boy my greatnesse. 1894 N. Amer Rev. Apr. 511 To watch your young man, after his first teens, acting the woman, the squeaking Cleopatras boying womanishness, is to be disgusted. 1982 Theatre Jrnl. 34 452 The look of the actor who boyed Cleopatra's greatness on the stage of the Globe can never be recovered. 1993 Stud. Eng. Lit. (Nexis) 22 Mar. 309 The very nature of theatrical representation defied ‘official’ positions on rank and degree, as common players personated princes, male actors ‘boyed’ females. 1998 C. R. DAILEADER Eroticism on Renaissance Stage i. 3 While she lived, the Queen was protected from profaning mimicry, unlike her female subjects, who were ‘boyed’ on stage endlessly.

    3. trans.

    a. In pass. To have a male child or children. rare.

a1635 R. CORBET Poems (1807) 126 Nor hast thou in his nuptiall armes enjoy'd Barren imbraces, but wert girl'd and boy'd. 1997 Santa Fe New Mexican (Nexis) 6 June 23 (poem) Daughters are gifts worth the giving Why be ‘boyed’ when you can be ‘girled’?

    b. To provide with boys as personnel; to man with boys. Cf. MAN v. 1. rare.

1655 T. FULLER Hist. Univ. Cambr. vi. 96 in Church-hist. Brit., The gates were shut, and partly Man'd, partly boy'd against him. 1897 N.Y. Times 23 May 18/2 Is he confident..that he will be allowed his share in manning, or rather in ‘boying’, the municipal offices? 2001 Toronto Star (Nexis) 27 Oct. A1, A dozen military blockages manned (boyed) by teenaged Russian soldiers in lonely sentry posts close to the border.

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