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Showing results for playboy. Search instead for playtoy.
Synonyms

playboy

American  
[play-boi] / ˈpleɪˌbɔɪ /

noun

  • playboys
    plural
  1. a man who pursues a life of pleasure without responsibility or attachments, especially one who is of comfortable means.


playboy British  
/ ˈpleɪˌbɔɪ /

noun

  1. a man, esp one of private means, who devotes himself to the pleasures of nightclubs, expensive holiday resorts, female company, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of playboy

First recorded in 1620–30; play + boy


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:

Once seen as a pampered playboy posing on superyachts, he turned out to be a natural, expanding operations in Wagner’s African stronghold in the Central African Republic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026

The 41-year-old royal misfit has long struggled with the monarchy's strictures, shaking off the angry young man and "playboy prince" tags only to find himself at loggerheads with his closest relatives.

From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026

Oh yeah, and in 1992 Donald Trump was a playboy tycoon in his mid-40s, at the peak of his tabloid celebrity.

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2025

It is about a con-man taking on the identity of a wealthy playboy.

From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2025

He had a bevy of female admirers — but also a coterie of critics, who considered him a dandy and a playboy.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

It’s a release created in SEO heaven: three of the buzziest playboys in music record a song and name it after one of the hottest genres in the world.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2023

Until his social media ban, Tate was operating something called Hustler University, which promised, for $49 a month, to turn his audience into rich playboys, as he presents himself to be.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2022

He reserves some of his greatest ire for FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who criticized the early CIA as a refuge of irresponsible adventurers, Ivy League playboys and communist sympathizers.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 8, 2020

They also need to shed any perceptions of the shoe as being for pretentious preppies, rakish playboys, or stuffy old men.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2016

He worships the vuvv playboys he works for.

From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson

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