Billy Bunter

English

Proper noun

Billy Bunter

1. A fictional fat boy with round spectacles in Charles Hamilton's stories set at Greyfriars School.
   • 1989, Piers Paul Read, A Season in the West:

     He looked up through his thick Billy Bunter spectacles and seeing a young man standing behind Laura handed him his empty plate […]

   • 2005, Jon Carter, South American Detox:

     Actually he wasn't too bad except he had a green army style hat on, which made him look completely ridiculous; a bit like Billy Bunter in the army.

Noun

Billy Bunter (plural Billy Bunters)

1. (British) A fat boy.
2. (Cockney rhyming slang) A punter (in a betting shop etc.).

Quotations

• 2004, J. J. Connolly, Layer Cake:

  She tells the Billy Bunter to take it home and— he mimics a bird — "totally cleanse it, use some extra strong bleach on its, you know, working parts"

• 2004, Ray Puxley, Britslang: an uncensored A-Z of the people's language:

  Billy Bunter a) Punter An old bookmaker's term based on the most famous fat boy