lad
noun
a boy or youth.
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lad
1 American
[lad]
/ læd /
noun
-
lads
plural
-
a boy or youth.
-
Informal. a familiar or affectionate term of address for a man; chap.
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British Horseracing Informal. a stable boy.
LAD
2
American
abbreviation
Psycholinguistics.
lad
British
/ læd /
noun
-
a boy or young man
-
informal a familiar form of address for any male
-
a lively or dashing man or youth (esp in the phrase a bit of a lad )
-
a young man whose behaviour is characteristic of male adolescents, esp in being rowdy, macho, or immature
-
a boy or man who looks after horses
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of lad
1250–1300; Middle English ladde < ?; compare late Old English Ladda (nickname)
Explanation
Lad is another word for a boy or a young man. A man who's been hit with a water balloon might turn around to a group of giggling boys and ask, "All right, which of you lads did that?" You can use the casual lad instead of guy, fellow, or chap. This word is much more common in Britain than in the U.S., although everyone understands what it means. Someone in London might talk about going out on the town with "the lads," while in Boston people are more likely to say they're meeting "the guys." Lad, originally spelled ladde, first meant "foot soldier," or "young servant."
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:
The lad needs broad shoulders to carry the weight of expectation but the Raiders can hardly do worse than last season.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
According to Kieran no-one exemplifies this better than a young lad named Cali whom he met in Alabama.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
“It’s a ballad for the real lad, an acceptable point where men can show a bit of emotion.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Paul Coutts, a ball playing midfielder and joker of Wilder's dressing room described Wright as an "unassuming lad" with a "dry sense of humour".
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
I ain’t being no bragger when I say I ain’t never seent no handsomer lad in my whole life!
From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis
The widowmaker isn’t always fatal, but a blockage in the LAD can cause the heart to stop beating, and to vibrate frantically in what’s called fibrillation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2023
By being in the environment, hearing the language and most important, understanding the language, somehow or other something kicks in in the brain called the LAD — the language acquisition device.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2023
Dr. McCormack later told me a heart attack that occurs when the LAD is completely or almost completely blocked is commonly known as the widowmaker.
From Fox News ● Aug. 23, 2021
He paid tribute to hospital staff who diagnosed a blocked LAD artery - the main artery running down the front of the heart.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2018
Sunnybank Lad won a million friends through my book, "LAD: A DOG"; and through the Lad-anecdotes in "Buff: A Collie."
From Further Adventures of Lad by Albert Payson Terhune
The Sun also leads on the tributes at Old Trafford and commends PC Blades's sons as "brave lads".
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
He explained he had always wanted to be a soldier and that like "all the young lads" he had wanted to play his part in defending his country.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
"It can't be done differently, it can't. Our lads need to be replaced. But nobody volunteers," he says.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
He recalled how at age nine, his musician son Max recruited a bunch of "Aberystwyth lads" to start a rock band with him.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
George Pocock, in turn, learned something from the highborn Eton lads.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
