bootblack
verbEtymology From boot + black.
1
To shine shoes.
bootblack
nounEtymology From boot + black.
1
Dated A 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