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cover boy

cover boy

2 5.9
A young man who appears on a magazine front cover as a fashion model
  • noun
  • /ˈkʌvər bɔɪ/
translation icon : chico de portada
  • The problem with a trade is that he has been built up into a local hero in LA, the cover boy of the team.
  • cover boy for Sports Illustrated
  • cover boy for Illustrated

Examples

  • Even a time magazine cover boy needs to drink with the lowlifes every once in a while.

  • Here's Martha as a regional cover boy the following year for Street & Smith's.

    Blog text (33)
  • - What the hell gives with the cover boy?

  • Some damn JC Penney cover boy.

  • The cover boy couldn't be prouder.

    Blog text (11)
  • He is the cover boy for the company's next video game release, WWE 13, due out next week.

    Blog text (11)
  • As though "Badge of Honor" would touch that guy with a 10-foot pole... after he's been Hush-Hush cover boy twice in one year.

  • For those of you not in the know, Roger Beekman here is the nine-time state science fair champion and current cover boy for Regional High School Science Teacher Weekly, the number one high school science teacher weekly publication in this region.

  • He was featured as the cover boy for the magazine's special edition on fashion trends.

  • After winning the modeling contest, Jake became the cover boy for several popular magazines.

Surface Forms

cover boy singular
cover boys plural

Morphology

cover + boy

The meaning 'a young man whose image appears on the front cover of a magazine' is directly derivable from 'cover' (the front of a magazine) + 'boy' (a young male). Although 'cover' here is a metonymic use of the noun, the composition is straightforward and predictable, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should understand it.

Etymology

Cover boy comes from the simple image of a boy on the cover of a magazine. Magazines put attractive young men on the front to attract readers, so the phrase now means 'a young man pictured on a magazine cover'.