b'hoy

noun

A rough-and-tumble working-class young man in Lower Manhattan between the late 1840s and the American Civil War period.

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Meanings

nounb'hoy (plural b'hoys)

plural b'hoys

  1. historicalslangA rough-and-tumble working-class young man in Lower Manhattan between the late 1840s and the American Civil War period.
  2. BaltimoreA political operative.

Origin

Supposed to evoke an Irish pronunciation of boy.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

b'hoy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/b'hoy

MLA

“b'hoy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/b'hoy. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “b'hoy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/b'hoy.

Source: b'hoy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.