Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A girl considered boyish or masculine in behavior or manner.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A rude, boisterous boy.
- n. A wild, romping girl; a hoyden.
- n. A worthless woman; a strumpet.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. colloq. A romping girl; a hoiden.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a girl who behaves in a boyish manner
Etymologies
- First attested in 1553 when it originally meant a “boisterous boy”, later in 1579 when it came to mean an “immodest woman”, and then finally in 1592 it developed its modern meaning of a “girl who acts like a boy”; from Tom, familiar form of Thomas + boy, “male child”. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“I think it clearly sends a message - intended or not - that certain activities are girl-like and others are boy-like and that a "tomboy" is acting like a boy, rather than a non-doll playing, sports-loving, and/or tree - climbing girl. rock doctor: Your paleontologist Barbie is probably a collector's item!”
“Ms. Le Pen was dubbed a tomboy by her sisters, but as a student she emulated her father's bon-vivant style, frequenting chic Parisian nightclubs.”
“High School Debut - Kazune Kawahara (manga) "Haruna, a tomboy, is determined to change her stripes when she enters high school, but is sadly lacking in fashion or social sense, so she recruits cute upperclassman Yo to instruct her on how to make herself more appealing to boys.”
“Malone: Betty Jean has often been described as a tomboy, which is accurate, but I mostly think of her as very eager to please, to fit in and be like the other girls because she knows she's just not.”
“Her clothes - black T-shirts and jeans to fit a style Kimberly describes as "tomboy" - still hang in the closet.”
“As a child I was far from what anyone would call a tomboy.”
“It just didn't cater to what some might call my tomboy nature.”
“She remembered, also, that Anna Weston was called a tomboy, and that her mother said it was a scandal for a little girl to have short hair.”
“She had been an undisciplined girl, called a tomboy in those days, whose farmer forbears had given to her a pagan passion for the soil and the open sky.”
“Patty at home had sometimes been called a tomboy, and she could not resist climbing up to see what the world looked like from the top.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tomboy’.
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Unneutered
These politically incorrect words for people contain the element 'man', 'son', or 'boy'.
parson, person, layman, businessman, clergyman, chairman, cameraman, craftsman, craftsmanship, fireman, fisherman, gunman and 50 more...
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Wrapped up in books
I'm reading books. And there are words and phrases I come upon for the first time, or that are used with usages that are new to me.
So, this is just a plain list of those words. Don't expect ...hobble, mackerel, crone, cavort, hoyden, rheumy, scatter, hiss, recoil, trundle, shatter, flaxen and 200 more...
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INSPIRATION ON STICK
words who inspires me on some projects
bridge to nowhere, malison, counting to infinity, butterfly effect, historical revisi..., antichrist, nouveau riche, soubrette, stendhal syndrome, bovarysme, faster, pussycat!..., groupies and 71 more...
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picarettes
hussies, dragon ladies and amazons
wench, hussy, brazen hussy, dragon, amazon, minx, baggage, tomboy, dragon lady, jezebel, fire eater, spitfire and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tomboy.
strev tomgirl would have cut the mustard too Nov 7, 2009