Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - boy

~1 n 1 »CHILD« a male child or young man  (The boys all wanted to play football. | little boy (=a young male child)) 2 »SON« a son  (I love my boys, but I'd like to have a girl too. | little boy (=a young son))  (How old is your little boy?) 3 office/paper/delivery etc boy a young man who does a particular job 4 the boys informal a group of men who are friends and often go out together  (Friday's his night out with the boys. | one of the boys (=popular with a group of men)) 5 »ANIMALS« a way of addressing a male horse or dog  (Good boy!) 6 »JOB« boys informal a) a group of men who do the same job  (Oh no! Wait until the press boys get hold of this story.) b) men in the army, navy etc, especially those who are fighting in a war  (our boys on the front lines) 7 boys will be boys used to say that you should not be surprised when boys behave badly, are noisy etc 8 city/local/working-class boy informal a man of any age considered as being affected by the place and social group that he was born in  (the classic story of a local boy who's made good | I'm just a country boy.) 9 old boy/my dear boy BrE old-fashioned a friendly way for one man to speak to another man 10 AmE taboo an offensive way of addressing a black man  (- see also blue-eyed boy, jobs for the boys job (5), mama's boy, mummy's boy, old boy, wide boy) ~2 interjection spoken especially AmE 1 also oh boy used when you are excited or pleased about something  (Boy, that was a great meal!) 2 oh boy used when you are slightly annoyed or disappointed about something  (Oh boy! Bethany's sick again.)