Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
An Aboriginal boy or servant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, obsolete, offensive, possibly
Examples
- 1898, Guy Boothby, Billy Binks—Hero, republished in Ken Gelder, Rachael Weaver, The Anthology of Colonial Australian Adventure Fiction, page 118, A moment later he beckoned the blackboy to his side, and when he arrived pointed to the ground. The boy gesticulated in answer, and then both pulled their horses to a standstill and waited for me to come up.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Any plant in the genus Xanthorrhoea, native to Australia.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Australia, informal
Examples
- 1966 November 8, Parliament of Western Australia, Parliamentary Debates, page 2181, The gum from the blackboy trees was used for the making of varnish and stain, [...]
- 1977, Royal Society of Western Australia, Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, Volumes 60-61, page 5, As with any fire, blackboys and sedges were the first to grow, little else appearing before the first rains, which were followed by a flush of herbaceous shoots.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
From black + boy. For sense (plant of genus Xanthorrhoea): from a supposed resemblance of the plant to an Aboriginal boy holding an upright spear.
