old boy
34
7.6
- noun
- /oʊld bɔɪ/
- UK
:
exalumno
- So the larger the bureaucracy, the larger the shadow side that's cast and that can make more room for informal stereotypes and sort of the old boy networks.
So the Bureau is still a, you know, it's an old boys club.
- So the Bureau is still a, you know, it's an old boys club.
- So it's a screen, but it, you know, I can't say the old, I'll still say old boys network.
Examples
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Now, Geoff Shelley reporting on Gordonstoun as Prince Charles arrives with his father, the school's most famous old boy.
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So you're still part of that old boys network.
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You wonder how this happened and this is how the old boy network used to work.
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And so, you know, so you think about these places as you know, exclusive old boys clubs, stuff like that.
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He fully expects me to graduate, buy a house in the suburbs, and be part of his old-boy network.
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He recently met with his fellow old boy from their boarding school days.
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At the reunion, they reminisced about their time as old boys at the prestigious academy.
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He was proud to be an old boy of the same school that many notable leaders attended.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituent 'old' can be interpreted as 'former' and 'boy' as a male person, so a learner could infer 'a man who used to be a pupil'. However, the phrase is a conventional British institutional label (often implying alumni of certain private schools) and relies on a colloquial use of 'boy' for adults, so the exact social nuance is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Old boy comes from schools that called their former male pupils old boys, and those ex-pupils often formed 'old boys' clubs. That's why today old boy can mean a man who once attended a particular school.