bootblack

plural bootblacks · alternative boot-black

1. datedA shoeshine boy; a person who shines shoes as an occupation.

   The young negro bootblack hummed "The Camp Meeting Blues" and polished in rhythm to his tune, drawing the shiny shoe-rag so taut at each stroke that it snapped like a banjo string.

   1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXIV, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: shoeblack, shoeshiner

present singular third person bootblacks · participle present bootblacking · participle past bootblacked · past bootblacked · alternative boot-black

1. transitiveTo shine shoes.