water boy

a person who carries a canteen or bucket of drinking water to those too occupied to fetch it, as to soldiers, laborers, or football players.

a person who sees that livestock is supplied with water, as by filling water troughs.

QUIZZES

Can You Ace This Quiz About “Compliment” vs. “Complement”?

Take this quiz to see if you really know the difference between “compliment” and “complement"!

Question 1 of 11

“Compliment” and “complement” had a shared meaning a long time ago, but today they are no longer interchangeable.

First recorded in 1630–40

You brought my water-boy back with you last night, didn't you, Mr. Ballard?
The King of Arcadia|Francis Lynde
From boss to water-boy we were failures all; so we understood each other.
The Precipice|Elia Wilkinson Peattie
The water-boy was humped over the horn of his saddle as if he had found a stomach-ache in the breathless gallop.
The King of Arcadia|Francis Lynde
I'll help pass a law making it illegal for Hans Wagner to hang around a ball park except as water-boy.
At Good Old Siwash|George Fitch

On his plantation Henson served as water-boy, butler and finally as a field hand, experiencing the usual hardship of the slave.
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 3, 1918|Various