First recorded in 1935–40
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The ghostwriter claims that Wallace’s alleged actions have been minimised by some as "cheeky barrow-boy humour" but she describes it as "revolting misogyny".
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2024
In this one he says that Sir Alan Sugar, a Trumpesque English businessman, has a “blunt insolence peculiar to all barrow-boy billionaires.”
From New York Times ● May 10, 2013
Only, there is neither barrow-boy, nor "poor man's peat," nor protecting watch-dog, for the horse cannot endure any of the canine tribe, and whether it be dog or wolf, both get kicked.
From The Yellow Rose by J?kai, M?r
From the Zám puszta came the barrow-boy, tearing along in such a hurry that he had even forgotten his cap.
From The Yellow Rose by J?kai, M?r
The barrow-boy now came up, and announced that from the look-out tree he had seen the other cowherd coming up at a gallop.
From The Yellow Rose by J?kai, M?r
It is Bradford’s 34th book, and the second part of a trilogy, following James Falconer, a barrow boy turned businessman.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 4, 2019
At the turn of the 90s, Flowered Up’s irresistible combination of barrow boy swagger and rave euphoria found them heralded as London’s answer to Happy Mondays.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 8, 2017
Coldstream Guards with a hint of barrow boy beneath.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 29, 2012
Me and My Girl A Cockney barrow boy invades a Downton Abbey-style world in this cheery 1930s musical, revised by Stephen Fry.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 22, 2010
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
