Skip to main content
Boy Scout

Boy Scout

15 2.8
A boy who belongs to a youth group that teaches outdoor skills and helps the community
  • noun
  • /bɔɪ skaʊt/
translation icon : explorador
  • The Boy Scout troop organized a cleanup event at the local park last weekend.

So that's where I mean, for me as a Boy Scout, that's what kind of started for me.

Autoplay Next

Examples

Synonyms

Scout
vsBoy Scout
362 2.1

A young person in a youth group who learns outdoor skills, teamwork, and leadership

refers to a male youth member of a national group emphasizing citizenship and community service

Surface Forms

Boy Scout singular
Boy Scouts plural

Morphology

boy + Scout

The meaning 'a boy who is a member of the Boy Scouts' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'boy' (male child) with 'Scout' (participant in Scouting). This noun–noun composition follows standard English patterns and is cross-linguistically intuitive, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would reliably infer the intended meaning (aside from recognizing it may be a named organization via capitalization).

Etymology

Boy Scout comes from the word scout, which meant someone who looked ahead for soldiers, and early groups taught young boys to watch, camp, and use outdoor skills. So a Boy Scout today is a young 'member' who learns 'camping', 'survival', and 'helping the community'.