boyish
/ˈbɔɪ.ɪʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.79 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Like a stereotypical boy in appearance or demeanor.
Example Sentences
- "People disliked his boyish and juvenile behaviour."
- "Her boyish figure belied her femininity."
- "He did so, but very soon stopt again to say, “the piano-forte! Ah! That was the act of a very, very young man, one too young to consider whether the inconvenience of it might not very much exceed the pleasure. A boyish scheme, indeed!—I cannot comprehend a man’s wishing to give a woman any proof of affection which he knows she would rather dispense with; and he did know that she would have prevented the instrument’s coming if she could.”"
- "He is never expected to act like a nice little gentleman, for he is only a rude little slave. Thus, freed from all restraint, the slave-boy can be, in his life and conduct, a genuine boy, doing whatever his boyish nature suggests; […]"
- "There were no signs and no one quite knew how to navigate the museum, including, as it was Fleet Week, gaggles of boyish sailors all in their summer whites. It looked like a Frank Sinatra movie."
- "For Memnon […] fought hand to hand with his overmatch, and met his boyish and most dolorous death beneath the walls of Troy."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰā- Proto-Germanic *bō- Proto-West Germanic *bōjō Old English *bōia Middle English boye English boy Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-isk Old English -isċ Middle English -isch English -ish English boyish From boy + -ish.
Inflected Forms
more boyish (comparative)
most boyish (superlative)