cabin boy
4
6.5
- noun
- /ˈkæbɪn bɔɪ/
- Archaic
:
gobernante
- He was my age when he sailed to China as a cabin boy.
- cabin boy on a ship
- new cabin boy
Is it because even cabin boys have certain fundamental rights?
- Is it because even cabin boys have certain fundamental rights?
Examples
-
During the voyage, the cabin boy made sure the passengers were comfortable.
-
He began his career as a cabin boy, doing small tasks for the ship's crew.
-
See to it the new cabin boy's kept busy.
-
Then up spoke the cabin boy
-
I sighed on a ship as cabin boy when I was 12.
-
I'll assign the cabin boy to visit your dog every watch... and report to you.
-
An orphan at the age of eleven, Ian Gallagher ran away from the slums of Belfast and went to sea as a cabin boy.
Fiction book (1998) -
As a young cabin boy, he learned the ins and outs of life on the sea.
How Senior
77
3.1
- Specialized
10
4.8
- Jargon
1
7.1
78
2.3
- Archaic
1
9.8
- Archaic
4
6.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a young male servant on a ship' is directly compositional from 'cabin' (an enclosed room on a ship) + 'boy' (a young male), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer a young male associated with the ship's cabin and likely performing attendant tasks. This simple noun–noun compounding pattern is common cross-linguistically and follows normal English composition, making the expression transparent.
Etymology
The term cabin boy comes from the simple picture of a young boy working in a ship's cabin, running errands, cleaning and serving the captain. So it means 'a young male servant who works on a ship'.