"barrow boy" meaning in English

See barrow boy in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-barrow boy.ogg [Australia] Forms: barrow boys [plural]
Etymology: Compound of barrow + boy. Attested since the 1930s in the sense of costermonger; the slang usage dates from the 1980s. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|barrow|boy}} barrow + boy, {{m|en|costermonger}} costermonger Head templates: {{en-noun}} barrow boy (plural barrow boys)
  1. (British) A boy or man who sells goods – especially fruit or vegetables – from a barrow; a costermonger. Tags: British Synonyms: barrow-boy
    Sense id: en-barrow_boy-en-noun-wPkTyd1G Categories (other): British English
  2. (British, slang, derogatory) By extension, a financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background. Tags: British, derogatory, slang
    Sense id: en-barrow_boy-en-noun-BUFH1e7n Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 34 66

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for barrow boy meaning in English (3.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "barrow",
        "3": "boy"
      },
      "expansion": "barrow + boy",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "costermonger"
      },
      "expansion": "costermonger",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Compound of barrow + boy. Attested since the 1930s in the sense of costermonger; the slang usage dates from the 1980s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "barrow boys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "barrow boy (plural barrow boys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1948, \"Is rhubarb a fruit?\", The Listener, page 650",
          "text": "...at a London magistrate's court a young coster — a barrow boy — was summoned before me for selling rhubarb without a licence.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 10, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, page 48",
          "text": "Operation London Bridge, also from 1975, tells the story of the busy station's redevelopment. Cutting neatly from the barrow boys of Borough Market to an aerial view of Borough Market Junction, the film uses time lapse photography to show the congestion rife in the area during the morning rush hour.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A boy or man who sells goods – especially fruit or vegetables – from a barrow; a costermonger."
      ],
      "id": "en-barrow_boy-en-noun-wPkTyd1G",
      "links": [
        [
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          "barrow#Etymology 2"
        ],
        [
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          "costermonger"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British) A boy or man who sells goods – especially fruit or vegetables – from a barrow; a costermonger."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "83 17",
          "word": "barrow-boy"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
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    {
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          "kind": "other",
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          "_dis": "34 66",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1992, Leslie Budd, Sam Whimster, Global Finance and Urban Living, page 326",
          "text": "The \"barrow boy\" commodities trader may well have no aspirations to old-style middle class tastes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "By extension, a financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background."
      ],
      "id": "en-barrow_boy-en-noun-BUFH1e7n",
      "links": [
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        [
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British, slang, derogatory) By extension, a financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "derogatory",
        "slang"
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  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-barrow boy.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/En-au-barrow_boy.ogg/En-au-barrow_boy.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/En-au-barrow_boy.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "barrow boy"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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        "3": "boy"
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      "expansion": "barrow + boy",
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
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      },
      "expansion": "costermonger",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Compound of barrow + boy. Attested since the 1930s in the sense of costermonger; the slang usage dates from the 1980s.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "barrow boys",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "barrow boy (plural barrow boys)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1948, \"Is rhubarb a fruit?\", The Listener, page 650",
          "text": "...at a London magistrate's court a young coster — a barrow boy — was summoned before me for selling rhubarb without a licence.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 March 10, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, page 48",
          "text": "Operation London Bridge, also from 1975, tells the story of the busy station's redevelopment. Cutting neatly from the barrow boys of Borough Market to an aerial view of Borough Market Junction, the film uses time lapse photography to show the congestion rife in the area during the morning rush hour.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A boy or man who sells goods – especially fruit or vegetables – from a barrow; a costermonger."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "barrow",
          "barrow#Etymology 2"
        ],
        [
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          "costermonger"
        ]
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British) A boy or man who sells goods – especially fruit or vegetables – from a barrow; a costermonger."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1992, Leslie Budd, Sam Whimster, Global Finance and Urban Living, page 326",
          "text": "The \"barrow boy\" commodities trader may well have no aspirations to old-style middle class tastes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "By extension, a financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background."
      ],
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          "working class"
        ],
        [
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          "middle class"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(British, slang, derogatory) By extension, a financial industry worker from a working class or lower middle class family background."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "British",
        "derogatory",
        "slang"
      ]
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  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "En-au-barrow boy.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b1/En-au-barrow_boy.ogg/En-au-barrow_boy.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/En-au-barrow_boy.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "barrow-boy"
    }
  ],
  "word": "barrow boy"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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