boy scout

See also: Boy Scout and boyscout

English

Alternative forms

• Boy Scout
• boyscout (less common)

Noun

boy scout (plural boy scouts)

1. A male member of the Scout Movement.
2. (sometimes derogatory) A man adhering to the values of honesty and idealism, and possibly somewhat naive or unworldly.
   • 1982, The Economist, volume 284, Economist Newspaper Ltd., page 24:

     An independently rich 52-year-old, he is very much a political boy scout, and has flailed the state Republican party as a cloistered "country club".

   • 1987 October 2, Wall Street Journal,:

     But the bottom line is that Simon is running for president as the boy scout who adheres to traditional liberal policies and solutions.

   • 2003, Roger F. S. Kaplan, Conservative socialism: the decline of radicalism and triumph of the Left in France, Transaction Publishers, page 91:

     Rocard, whose two marriages had failed during his long years as the left's boy scout, was reported to be living with a psychoanalyst.

Derived terms

• boy scoutish

 

Translations

male member of the Scout Movement

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 童軍 / 童军 (zh) (tóngjūn), 男童軍 / 男童军 (nán tóngjūn)

• Czech: skaut (cs) m
• Esperanto: skolto
• French: scout (fr) m
• German: Pfadfinder (de) m
• Greek: πρόσκοπος (el) m (próskopos)
• Swedish: scout (sv) c, pojkscout c

man adhering to the values of honor and honesty

• Swedish: bror Duktig, präktig (sv) (adjective)

See also

• altar boy