attaboy

See also: atta boy

English

Alternative forms

• atta boy, ataboy, thatta boy, thattaboy

Etymology

A variant pronunciation of That's the boy!, a cry of encouragement, especially to children and pet dogs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈætəˌbɔɪ/

• Audio (General Australian):

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• Audio (US):

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Interjection

attaboy

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) Used to show encouragement or approval to a boy, man, or male animal.

   Attaboy! That's the way to hit a home run!

   • 2025 November 14, Jason Wilson, quoting Jeffrey Epstein, “Jeffrey Epstein advised Steve Bannon during 2018 pro-Trump media campaign”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     [Steve] Bannon responded: “They went for an hour instead of 30 minutes--- showing the entire hour over multiple platforms.” [Jeffrey] Epstein shot back “atta boy”.

Translations

Used to show encouragement or approval to a boy or a man

• Azerbaijani: afərin, əhsən
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 好樣的 / 好样的 (zh) (hǎoyàngde)

• Finnish: aika poika (fi)
• French: bon gars m, bravo (fr)
• Georgian: ყოჩაღ (ka) (q̇očaɣ)
• German: gut gemacht, guter Junge m, Das ist mein Mann! (pronounced with stress on "Das")
• Irish: maith mo ghasúr é
• Italian: bravo (it) m
• Japanese: でかした (ja) (dekashita), いいぞ (ja) (ii zo), うまいぞ (ja) (umai zo)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: eferim

• Lithuanian: šaunuolis m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: flink gutt, flink bisk (to a dog)

• Polish: zuch chłopak
• Portuguese: lindo menino
• Russian: молоде́ц (ru) m (molodéc), молодчи́на (ru) m or f (molodčína), краса́вчик (ru) m (krasávčik), молото́к (ru) m (molotók), краса́ва (ru) m or f (krasáva)
• Spanish: ¡bien hecho!
• Swedish: heja (sv)

Noun

attaboy (plural attaboys)

1. A cry of encouragement; an accolade.
   • 2007 June 30, David M. Halbfinger, “How a Fan of Comic Books Transformed Himself Into a Hollywood Player”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     LOS ANGELES, June 29 — Drink in hand, attaboys coming at him from every direction, Tom DeSanto was living the fanboy dream.

See also

• attagirl