man and boy
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Aged 52, he has been watching badgers ‘ man and boy’ and has never tired of their antics, especially the young at play with fox cubs.
That was fine when manpower was cheap and farming was labour intensive, when families worked in the fields man and boy.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “Irreversible binomial” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29).
Common questions
What does “man and boy” mean?
A fixed-order word pair (irreversible binomial); full definition pending editorial review.
Is “man and boy” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.