Alternative forms

• link-boy, linkboy

Etymology

From link (“torch, light”) +‎ boyCategory:English compound terms#LINKBOY.

Noun

link boy (plural link boys)Category:English lemmas#LINKBOYCategory:English nouns#LINKBOYCategory:English countable nouns#LINKBOYCategory:English multiword terms#LINKBOYCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#LINKBOYCategory:Pages with entries#LINK%20BOYCategory:Pages with 1 entry#LINK%20BOY

1. (historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#LINKBOY) A boy employed to carry a torch or other light at night to help people navigate through the streets.
   • 1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1837, →OCLC:

     “Servants is in the arms o' Porpus, I think,” said the short chairman, warming his hands at the attendant link-boy’s torch.

     Category:English terms with quotations#LINKBOY

   • 2009, Dan Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, Random House, page 94:

     By the early eighteenth century link-boys had long been part of London's criminal and sexual mythology.

     Category:English terms with quotations#LINKBOY

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned

References

• “link boy” in Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: Based on Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 7th edition, Springfield, Mass.: G[eorge] & C[harles] Merriam, 1963 (1967 printing), →OCLC.