Tomboy
noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A girl who behaves in a typically boyish manner.
"His sister, his dearest and only playmate, is a tomboy at heart."
- 2 a girl who behaves in a boyish manner wordnet
- 3 A rude, boisterous boy. obsolete
- 4 An immodest or bold woman. obsolete
- 5 A butch lesbian. Philippines, colloquial
Example
More examples"Mary was a tomboy growing up and liked to repair cars and tractors."
Etymology
From tom + boy. First attested in Ralph Roister Doister (published 1567, written circa 1552), where it is used to describe a boisterous girl; the OED says the citation is however "generally taken" to mean a boisterous boy, and says that a use in The Old Law (published 1656, thought to have been written circa 1599) "certainly" means a boy: "must young court-tits / play tomboys' tricks with her?" By 1579 it was attested in the meaning "an immodest woman", and by no later than 1592 it had developed its modern meaning of a “girl who acts like a boy”.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.