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BOYISH
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Befitting or characteristic of a young boy
Example:
schoolboyish pranks
Synonyms:
boyish; boylike; schoolboyish
Classified under:
Similar:
immature; young ((used of living things especially persons) in an early period of life or development or growth)
Derivation:
boyishness (being characteristic of a boy)
Context examples:
Your hair is becoming, and it looks very boyish and nice, returned Meg, trying not to smile at the curly head, which looked comically small on her tall sister's shoulders.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I entreated Agnes not to regard this as a thoughtless passion which could ever yield to any other, or had the least resemblance to the boyish fancies that we used to joke about.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He was a thin-faced, yellow-haired youth, rather above the middle size, comely and well shapen, with straight, lithe figure and eager, boyish features.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Indeed, it became evident to us as soon as we had taken our seats that a youthful and even boyish spirit was abroad in the gallery and the back portions of the hall.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And I noticed the boyish face of Harrison,—a good face once, but now a demon’s,—convulsed with passion as he told the new-comers of the hell-ship they were in and shrieked curses upon the head of Wolf Larsen.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
To complete her confusion, she saw Belle nudge Annie, and both glance from her to Laurie, who, she was happy to see, looked unusually boyish and shy.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
I was a boyish husband as to years.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He in the midst was young and comely, with boyish open face and bright gray eyes, which glanced from right to left as though he found the world around him both new and pleasing.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
We sprang to our feet with a gasp of astonishment as Challenger, in a round, boyish straw-hat with a colored ribbon—Challenger, with his hands in his jacket-pockets and his canvas shoes daintily pointing as he walked—appeared in the open space before us.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"I say, Jo, that's rather too much," he began, just in his old boyish way.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
