sandboy

noun — 2 senses

sandboy

noun

Etymology From sand + boy.

1

A boy who sells sand.

  • Up and down the street not a child was to be seen. A sandboy with a donkey cart was the sole human arrangement in it.1880, George MacDonald, Sir Gibbie, Hurst and Blackett:
2

In similes A proverbially happy or jolly person.

  • Drink always rubbed him the right way, and he would reach his rooms as jolly as a sandboy.1910, O Henry, “The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball”, in The Trimmed Lamp:
  • Craw was happy as a sandboy, he reported: quite his former vile self, but a bit dazed to be bearded by Luke without warning.1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 23:
Derived terms
happy as a sandboy, jolly as a sandboy

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.