office boy

American  

noun

office boys plural

1. a person, traditionally a boy, employed in an office to run errands, do odd jobs, etc.

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office boy British  

noun

1. a former name for office junior

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• office boys
  plural

Etymology

Origin of office boy

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

office boy

It was in 1890 that Arthur Beale joined the company as an office boy and the shop was re-named after him in the early 1900s.

From BBC ● May 12, 2021

After the war, he was hired as an assistant office boy at Simon & Schuster and eventually rose to sales manager, with a special eye for children's books.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2019

Mr. Hamilton, who had no interest in following his father into the British diplomatic service, entered films at 17 as a studio office boy.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2016

His assistant and only employee, besides an office boy, was his fiancée, twenty-year-old Blanche Wolf, whom he married a year later and who worked for the company the rest of her life.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 11, 2016

An office boy came along to direct me.

From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison