bootblack
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of bootblack
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Here’s what I wrote about Tony — “equal parts bootblack and Benihana chef” — in 2004, as I watched him shine the boots of a customer named Eric Mulmar at Nick’s:
From Washington Post • Jun. 15, 2022
The 1868 bildungsroman “Ragged Dick,” the most popular of Alger’s books in his day, follows a 14-year-old bootblack as he makes his way in New York.
From New York Times • Apr. 5, 2022
His action mirrored what’s happening on the bootblack stand in the corner.
From Slate • Apr. 17, 2019
The public no longer associated it primarily with working-class revelry, unwashed vendors, and vagrant street children such as Dick, the dirt-streaked bootblack, in Horatio Alger’s novel Ragged Dick.
From Salon • Sep. 7, 2013
“My bootblack kit. All my paste and brushes. How do they expect me to make a living?”
From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline
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.
