Whiteboy
Britishnoun
Etymology
Origin of Whiteboy
C18: adopted from the earlier use of the phrase as a term of endearment for a boy or man
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.
They accordingly shook hands, and M'Carthy gave him the genuine grip, as he had been taught it by the Whiteboy.
From The Tithe-Proctor The Works of William Carleton, Volume Two by Carleton, William
In January 1787 Fitzgibbon introduced a stringent bill for repressing the Whiteboy outrages.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 4 "Cincinnatus" to "Cleruchy" by Various
In Munster, in 1833, out of 973 crimes, 627 were Whiteboy, or agrarian, and even of the remainder, many, being crimes of violence, were probably committed from the same motive.
From Handbook of Home Rule Being articles on the Irish question by Godkin, Edwin Lawrence
There was a Whiteboy attack to force the stairs when she was a child, and I suppose we rehearsed that combat fully fifty—ay, five hundred times.
From Lord Kilgobbin by Lever, Charles James
No man was ever afflicted with such convenient maladies as Phelim; even his sprains, tooth-aches, and colics seemed to have entered into the Whiteboy system.
From Phelim Otoole's Courtship and Other Stories Traits And Stories Of The Irish Peasantry, The Works of William Carleton, Volume Three by Carleton, William
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.
