"boys will be boys" meaning in English

See boys will be boys in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-boys will be boys.wav
Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=boys will be boys}} boys will be boys
  1. It is hard, often fruitless, to attempt to curb the natural playfulness and tendency to mischief of most growing boys.
    Sense id: en-boys_will_be_boys-en-proverb-ZwVHVdrD Categories (other): Entries with translation boxes Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 38 19 43
  2. Even grown men usually remain somewhat boyish at heart. Categories (topical): Children Translations (men remain boyish at heart): pojat ovat poikia (Finnish), мальчи́шки есть мальчи́шки (malʹčíški jestʹ malʹčíški) (Russian)
    Sense id: en-boys_will_be_boys-en-proverb-kPPTucL0 Disambiguation of Children: 16 65 19 Categories (other): English proverbs, Entries with translation boxes, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with Polish translations, Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations Disambiguation of English proverbs: 25 43 33 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 38 19 43 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 19 46 36 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 19 45 35 Disambiguation of Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations: 18 49 33 Disambiguation of 'men remain boyish at heart': 2 87 12
  3. (informal, offensive) Predatory behavior of suitors should be viewed as excusable because it comes naturally to many boys and men. Tags: informal, offensive Categories (topical): Male Translations (boys are mischievous by nature): pojat ovat poikia (Finnish), il faut que jeunesse se passe (French), Jungen sind nun einmal so (German), chłopcy zawsze będą chłopcami (Polish), мальчи́шки есть мальчи́шки (malʹčíški jestʹ malʹčíški) (Russian), Dečki će biti dečki (Serbo-Croatian)
    Sense id: en-boys_will_be_boys-en-proverb-3hg~gP0B Disambiguation of Male: 14 23 63 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English tautophrases, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with French translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Russian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 22 25 53 Disambiguation of English tautophrases: 22 26 52 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 38 19 43 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 22 18 60 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 20 26 54 Disambiguation of Terms with French translations: 25 25 50 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 27 25 48 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 26 24 50 Disambiguation of 'boys are mischievous by nature': 33 17 51
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          "word": "pojat ovat poikia"
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          "code": "fi",
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          "sense": "boys are mischievous by nature",
          "word": "pojat ovat poikia"
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          "roman": "malʹčíški jestʹ malʹčíški",
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        },
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          "_dis1": "33 17 51",
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "boys are mischievous by nature",
      "word": "pojat ovat poikia"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "boys are mischievous by nature",
      "word": "il faut que jeunesse se passe"
    },
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      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "boys are mischievous by nature",
      "word": "Jungen sind nun einmal so"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "boys are mischievous by nature",
      "word": "chłopcy zawsze będą chłopcami"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "malʹčíški jestʹ malʹčíški",
      "sense": "boys are mischievous by nature",
      "word": "мальчи́шки есть мальчи́шки"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "boys are mischievous by nature",
      "word": "Dečki će biti dečki"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "men remain boyish at heart",
      "word": "pojat ovat poikia"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "malʹčíški jestʹ malʹčíški",
      "sense": "men remain boyish at heart",
      "word": "мальчи́шки есть мальчи́шки"
    }
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  "word": "boys will be boys"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.