link boy

English

Alternative forms

• link-boy, linkboy

Etymology

From link (“torch, light”) +‎ boy.

Noun

link boy (plural link boys)

1. (now historical) A boy employed to carry a torch or other light at night to help people navigate through the streets.
   • 1837, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers:

     “Servants is in the arms o' Porpus, I think,” said the short chairman, warming his hands at the attendant link-boy’s torch.

   • 2009, Dan Cruikshank, The Secret History of Georgian London, Random House 2009, p. 94:

     By the early eighteenth century link-boys had long been part of London's criminal and sexual mythology.

Synonyms

• linkman
• torchbearer

References

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967