little son (often used as a familiar term of address to a boy).
(used as a term of direct address to express contempt, derision, etc.).
No, sonny, you can't park there!
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“She’d sing it in her own way to see if it fits, and she would say, ‘How does that sound, sonny?’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2025
We need to save Mako big Joe and big Sam for the vital last 25 mins. look at NZ today sonny Bill and Barrett won them the game.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2015
The obvious reply for Darling would have been along the lines of: while you've been watching I've been doing it, sonny.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 29, 2010
Sony was meant to appeal to Americans--a nod to "sonny boy," which was a phrase that was popular in Japan during the 1950s.
From Inc ● Mar. 24, 2010
“I didn’t say I’d do it, sonny, don’t try pressuring a miracle man, not this one; you try pressuring me, out you go, how much money you got?”
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
Sonny D, an AI researcher who declined to provide his last name because of surveillance concerns, is involved with a group called AI Action that focuses on issues such as job displacement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
“We weren’t a good team, and that was a fact,” ace pitcher Sonny Gray said this weekend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Sonny wants to reassure everybody that she was just making it up.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Education minister Sonny Angara said the government was "very concerned", adding: "We don't want a situation seen in the United States, where there have been concerns about copycat incidents."
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Sonny and Miles make their way over to us.
From "On the Come Up" by Angie Thomas
But I was out-talked, sonnies, as has happened to me by my own wife, time and time agen.
From The Soul of Susan Yellam by Vachell, Horace Annesley
Well, we be near 'ome, sonnies," said the captain, "after a safe journey.
From The Birthright by Hocking, Joseph
Ay, your pa’son comes by fate: ’tis heads or tails, like pitch-halfpenny, and no choosing; so we must take en as he is, my sonnies, and thank God he’s no worse, I suppose.”
From Under the Greenwood Tree, or, the Mellstock quire; a rural painting of the Dutch school by Hardy, Thomas
"Then," said the fiddler, "I'll venture to name that the right and proper thing is 'The Soldier's Joy'—there being a gallant soldier married into the farm—hey, my sonnies, and gentlemen all?"
From Far from the Madding Crowd by Hardy, Thomas
My sonnies, all true stories have a coarse touch or a bad moral, depend upon’t.
From Under the Greenwood Tree, or, the Mellstock quire; a rural painting of the Dutch school by Hardy, Thomas
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.
