Boyish Meaning
/ˈbɔɪ.ɪʃ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjLike a stereotypical boy in appearance or demeanor.
adjRelating to a boy, or occurring in boyhood.
Sentence Examples
That girl looks boyish.
This girl looks boyish.
He still has a boyish face.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Despite being thirty, he still had a ____ grin that made him look younger.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The elderly man still had a ____ charm that made everyone like him.
Word Origin & History
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 -ish English -ish English boyish From boy + -ish.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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.”"
— 1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter XV, in Emma: […], volume III, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, pages 279–280:
"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; […]"
— 1855, Frederick Douglass, “The Author’s Childhood”, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC, part I (Life as a Slave), page 41:
"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."
— 2014 June 7, Vicki Woods, “Sadness, and a surprise, at the 9/11 Museum: The memorial at Ground Zero is filled with objects that shock the tears out of you”, in The Daily Telegraph, archived from the original on 01 Jul 2014, page 24:
"For Memnon […] fought hand to hand with his overmatch, and met his boyish and most dolorous death beneath the walls of Troy."
— 1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Despite being thirty, he still had a ____ grin that made him look younger.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The elderly man still had a ____ charm that made everyone like him.