boyfriend
Americanadjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of boyfriend
Explanation
A boyfriend is a male romantic partner. Your cousin might ask if she can bring her boyfriend to the family Thanksgiving dinner this year. Usually, your boyfriend is a boy or man you're romantically involved with. Your aunt might join a dating site after breaking up with her boyfriend, and your ten year old neighbor might announce she has a boyfriend after a boy leaves a candy bar on her desk. The words boyfriend and girlfriend first appeared in the early 1900s, around the start of modern dating in the US.
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.
See Examples For:
Pike's boyfriend and co-defendant Shipp was 17 at the time so was spared the death penalty under state law.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
Nguyen had told her boyfriend she thought the dog was run over but did not admit to running over the animal herself, Garcia said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Thriller author Lucy Foley was given the reins to the character, after promising to not make her young or give her a boyfriend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Released last October, the bittersweet song details Langley's suspicions that her boyfriend is about to run off with another woman.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
I want to tell him about Isabella’s mom not allowing her to have a boyfriend or something, but my mouth won’t let me say it.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
It’s women bringing their boyfriends, women who now bring their husbands, couples coming together, and I love it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
The phenomenon of artificial intelligence boyfriends and girlfriends is growing worldwide, along with the prevalence of human-like avatars that sell products or stand in for loved ones who have died.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
The wedding, this theory goes, was payback for 20 years’ worth of media that characterized her as desperate and lovelorn and having only herself to blame for boyfriends who wilted under the media’s gaze.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
During Tuesday's proceedings, the court heard from Nora Haukland's former boyfriends, including one who spoke of their "peaceful break-up" and his respect for her, and another who described their relationship as turbulent.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 2026
To go back to vaguely ignoring him the way he’d ignored all of Doreen’s other boyfriends.
From "We'll Fly Away" by Bryan Bliss
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.
