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link boy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
link boy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
link boy in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From link (“torch, light”) + boy.
Noun
link boy (plural link boys)
- (historical) A boy employed to carry a torch or other light at night to help people navigate through the streets.
1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, , published 1837, →OCLC:“Servants is in the arms o' Porpus, I think,” said the short chairman, warming his hands at the attendant link-boy’s torch.
2009, Dan Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, Random House, page 94:By the early eighteenth century link-boys had long been part of London's criminal and sexual mythology.
Synonyms
References
- Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967