English

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Noun

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book-boy (plural book-boys)

  1. (dated) A young male assigned to retrieve books, especially for patrons in a library.
    • 1693, W. Robertson, Phraseologia Generalis, page 215:
      A Battledore boy or Horn-book-boy.
    • 1903, G.A. Natesan, The Indian Review: A Monthly Journal, Volume 4, page 192:
      His first situation was as book-boy in the library of the Bristol Law Society.
    • 1997, William Hughes Mulligan, Mulligan's Law: The Wit and Wisdom of William Hughes Mulligan, page 43:
      While a student at Fordham Law School I was indentured to the Association as a book-boy at Vesey Street charged with the responsibility of shelving the books in the south reading toom.