goy
Americannoun
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goyim,
plural
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goys
plural
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a term used by a Jew to refer to someone who is not Jewish.
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a term used by an observant Jew to refer to a Jew who is not religious or is ignorant of Judaism.
noun
Sensitive Note
In Yiddish and Hebrew, goy is a neutral, descriptive term meaning gentile. In English, it may sometimes be used disparagingly or contemptuously. The word is also considered disparaging when it is applied to a Jew who is not observant.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of goy
First recorded in 1835–45; from Yiddish, from Hebrew goi “nation, non-Jew, Jew ignorant of the Jewish religion”
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:
"Shabbos goy" is a term used to refer to non-Jews employed by Orthodox Jews to perform certain services that are forbidden on the Sabbath.
From Fox News ● Nov. 28, 2021
He could even speak a little Yiddish, from his teenage stint as “a schlepper” at a baby furniture and toy store owned by immigrant Jews and as a Shabbos goy in the neighborhood.
From New York Times ● Oct. 23, 2021
I even shacked up with a goy – oy vey!
From The Guardian ● Dec. 21, 2019
And, of course, I’m the goy playing a Jew in the movie.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 22, 2015
A goy zugt a vertl meant “As the peasant says ...” “So, Chaya, is Shmuel coming or not?”
From "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen
The Hebrew word goyim, in early Bible history, was equivalent to our word nation.
From The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882 by Wild, Joseph
I will hear obsarve that Mrs.Ward is a invalerble womum—the partner of my goys & the shairer of my sorrers.
From The Complete Works of Artemus Ward — Part 1: Essays, Sketches, and Letters by Ward, Artemus
"So long goys the pott to the water, at last comys it home broken!"
From "Everyman," with other interludes, including eight miracle plays by Rhys, Ernest
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.
