good boy
144
1.0
- noun
- /ɡʊd bɔɪ/
- Baby Talk
:
buen chico
- You were a good boy today for helping your sister with her homework.
- There, good boy
- say 'good boy'
- good boy to a dog
Dog owners, stop saying good boy and good girl to your pets.
- Dog owners, stop saying good boy and good girl to your pets.
- He said to them, See, you're all good boys coming from good families.
- dogs have now understood that they have to be good boys to get food.
- It's like, no, no, you know, we're both, we're both good boys.
- Okay, but, but yeah, now once I stopped here, they start saying like good boy, good boy.
- So the amount of pressure really is overwhelming to be a good boy, to make your parents proud and happy.
Examples
-
"Now sit here like a good boy and listen to your new tape."
Fiction book (1991) -
He's a good boy, our number one and only, and we're always proud of him.
Fiction book (1999) -
Oh, what a good boy you are so, so cute.
-
Are you a good boy?
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Be a good boy and get me back there.
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You wanted to be a good boy, so you became a cop.
Fiction book (1992) -
He was always such a good boy!
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You were a good boy today, Gustavo.
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Good boy, you'll go far.
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Be a good boy.
Antonyms
How Well-Behaved
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a term of affection or praise for a well-behaved child or dog' is directly and compositionally built from 'good' (well-behaved, approved) + 'boy' (male child/young), following the regular adjective+noun pattern. This straightforward, literal combination is cross-linguistically common and a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the phrase.
Etymology
Good boy may come from how people praised a child or dog that behaved well: owners and parents would pat them and say the words good and boy together to show 'affection' and 'praise'. So today it is a short, friendly way to say someone is 'well-behaved'.