cabin boy

American  

noun

1. a boy employed as a servant for the officers and passengers on a ship.

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cabin boy British  

noun

1. a boy who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship

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Etymology

Origin of cabin boy

First recorded in 1720–30

Example Sentences

The 1884 death of a cabin boy in a lifeboat was no accident.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 3, 2025

When the storm that sank the ship surged again, a young cabin boy was left stranded.

From National Geographic • Aug. 18, 2023

Here you have this man who goes to the Arctic at 18 as a cabin boy for Commander Peary.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 28, 2022

Vesey briefly kept the child as a cabin boy, but upon reaching the French sugar colony of St. Domingue — modern Haiti — he sold the child, whom he had rechristened Telemaque, to French planters.

From New York Times • Jun. 18, 2015

Could this account really have been written by Simon’s great-uncle Pudge, when he was a cabin boy so many years ago?

From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood