boy howdy

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English

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Pronunciation

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Interjection

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boy howdy

  1. (idiomatic) Expresses strong support or agreement.
    • 2005, Mark Alan Norris, Everything and Then Some, →ISBN, page 140:
      Boy howdy. There was indeed no rest for the wicked.
    • 2010, Joe Barfield, Formula 2000, the Dream, →ISBN:
      I greeted Shannon's request enthusiastically, "Boy, howdy!"
    • 2013, Honor James, The Rogue Hunter's Mate, →ISBN, page 60:
      "Talk to me, Zaidu. What do you mean?" she asked quietly. "I'm more than a little confused here. I know what's happening in my life." Boy howdy, did she!
    • 2014, Steven Gould, Exo: A Jumper Novel, →ISBN:
      Boy howdy, are you ever. You're on number four but there's no Doppler shift!"
  2. (idiomatic) Expresses emphasis.
    • 1918 October 26, George Pattullo, “Places of Dreadful Night”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, number 17, Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, page 15:
      "Boy, howdy! Where do you get that stuff, you rummy?"
    • 1992, Hugh Ruppersburg, Georgia Voices: Fiction, →ISBN, page 460:
      Boy howdy, boy howdy, boy howdy! I was buried alive in noise, and the heat and cinders stung my neck and legs and the bottoms of my feet.
    • 2002, Carole Marsh, Heroes & Helpers, →ISBN, page 43:
      Boy, howdy, is it cold! This is not Paris, as in "gay Paree," in France.
    • 2004, Will Hancok, All 'Bout Me, an Arkansas Tail, →ISBN, page 171:
      l saw her just a standin' there with her little blue suitcase and l said, 'Boy howdy, would l like to crawl into her pants!'
    • 2007, Olive Ann Burns, Cold Sassy Tree, →ISBN, page 77:
      If there wasn't a dragging brake beam to rip me down the back, I was go'n make it! Boy howdy, I did some fancy praying.

Usage notes

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  • Sometimes used sarcastically to express the opposite.