wide boy

British

noun

slang a man who is prepared to use unscrupulous methods to progress or make money

"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

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.

Others think of him as a kind of Essex wide boy, a chancer, ready to pull the wool over your eyes.

From The Guardian • Mar. 29, 2020

For some, he is the what-you-see-is-what-you-get, always-ready-to-have-a-laugh character out of an Ealing comedy: for others, including the police on occasion, he is the East End working-class wide boy.

From The Guardian • Apr. 30, 2013

For others, including the police, he is the East End working-class wide boy: a dodgy geezer.

From The Guardian • Feb. 8, 2012

Not only does he want to get Bent, he also wants Colorado Rapids striker Omar Cummings and Birmingham wide boy Sebastian Larsson.

From The Guardian • Jan. 18, 2011

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023