stockboy

noun — 2 senses

stockboy

noun

Etymology From stock + boy.

1

A young stockman raising livestock.

  • He spoke quietly, in a rather cultured voice, saying, "Your brother Mark gave Jock one of his halfcaste piccaninnies for a stock-boy. […]"1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VI, in Capricornia, page 85:
2

A young stocker, an employee at a store stocking shelves; an entry-level retail employee.

  • He had graduated from Cregier High School two months earlier and quickly landed a job as a stockboy at Order from Horder, a stationery store chain.1991, Alex Kotlowitz, There are no Children Here, page 194:
  • Excuse me, but is this huge application necessary? Listing job experience — what experience is crucial for being a stock boy?1991 September 19, Tim Sniffen, Tangelo Pie (comic), University of Massachusetts Amherst:
2 more examples
  • When an aunt who was an actress helped him find a job in the William Morris mailroom, where would-be agents traditionally start, the salary was not enough to support him, so he took a second job working as a stockboy at a Macy’s in New Jersey.2009 April 19, Allen Salkin, “He’s the Man Who Sets the Table”, in New York Times:
  • A marvelous photograph by Fred McDarrah shows Andy [Warhol] standing among his boxes, like a stock boy in the stockroom, his pasty face looking out at us.2013, Arthur Danto, chapter 1, in What Art Is, New Haven: Yale University Press, page 36:

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