bellboy

American  

[bel-boi] / ˈbɛlˌbɔɪ /

noun

• bellboys
  plural

1. a bellhop.

---

bellboy British  

/ ˈbɛlˌbɔɪ /

noun

1. Also called (US and Canadian): bellhop.  a man or boy employed in a hotel, club, etc, to carry luggage and answer calls for service; page; porter

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bellboys
  plural

Etymology

Origin of bellboy

An Americanism dating back to 1830–40; bell ¹ + boy

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bellboy bellboys

Somehow, McCarthy’s assurance makes these clichés seem new again, donning them as naturally as O’Connell’s gawky bellboy wearing an old-fashioned red cap.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026

“He cut it out of the wall with a chisel. A bellboy even helped load the pieces in a truck.”

From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2020

And now they stand in some hotel lobby in Turin, shouting at the proprietor while a bellboy waits, holding the elevator.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 12, 2017

“We’re workers without a boss,” said Marcelo Ruarte, 65, a former bellboy who has worked at the hotel for 35 years.

From New York Times ● Sep. 24, 2014

The bellboy who took them up wasn’t a boy and hadn’t a bell.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

During summers, the children and their father worked as bellboys and valets at the Greenbrier, an expansive resort nearby.

From Washington Post ● May 28, 2021

As a result, union members who work as maids and bellboys at $400-a-night hotels pay nothing for their health care.

From New York Times ● Jul. 19, 2017

V.A.S. frequently enlists bartenders, doormen, bellboys, waitresses and cabbies in games — people a client is unlikely to think are in on the ruse.

From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2011

But uppity bellboys were the least of the earnest Governor's troubles last week.

From Time Magazine Archive

The other bellboys were taking these risks, and I fell in.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright