Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A youth employed as a servant or page.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A boy in waiting; an attendant in livery; a lackey; a link-boy.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A page; an attendant in livery; a lackey.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun now historical A serving boy,
attendant ,page with similar duties as an adultfootman .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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She told her name, and was shewn, by a little shabby footboy, into a parlour.
Cecilia 2008
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Robert Melville, who appeared to have been using some soothing language — “No! no! no! I tell thee, no! I will place a petard against the door rather than be baulked by a profligate woman, and bearded by an insolent footboy.”
The Abbot 2008
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A small sharp – looking lad, half – footboy and half – clerk, who was very much out of breath, but who looked at me as if he defied me to prove it legally, presented himself.
David Copperfield 2007
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Injury is on the other side a good man's footboy, his fidus Acliates, and as a lackey follows him wheresoever he goes.
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There were gates to open, and Hepburn jumped down to open them, as if he were the footboy.
The Captain's Doll 2003
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Molly stayed twittering by the door, wonderful because she saw her King of Men cringing like a footboy before a shorter than himself.
Little Novels of Italy Madonna Of The Peach-Tree, Ippolita In The Hills, The Duchess Of Nona, Messer Cino And The Live Coal, The Judgment Of Borso Maurice Henry Hewlett
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Honest Roger, the red-haired coachman, would have looked like a clown in a pantomime, in front of a fashionable equipage; and Simon the footboy, who slouched at my back, would have been mistaken for an idle urchin surreptitiously enjoying a ride.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 400, November 21, 1829 Various
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Extreme cold is very well expressed in the slip-shod footboy, and the girl who is warming her hands.
The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings With Descriptions, and a Comment on Their Moral Tendency John Trusler
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Even before his apprenticeship to Mr. John Lambert, he felt he was not appreciated or understood; perhaps no one ever _acted_ a greater satire upon his own profession than this harsh attorney, who deemed his apprentice on a level with his footboy.
The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 Various
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Definitions of "Jack" include: boots; a diminutive of John used contemptuously to mean a saucy fellow; a footboy who pulls off his master's boots; a scream; a male; American slang for a stranger; American slang for a jackass; a cunning fellow who can do anything - such as a "Jack of all trades."
Portrait of a Killer Cornwell, Patricia 1930
yarb commented on the word footboy
We placed ourselves at table, where having a chambermaid and a footboy for eye-witnesses, we kept within the bounds of brother and sister.
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 7 ch. 6
September 30, 2008