sandboy

English

Etymology

From sand +‎ boy.

Noun

sandboy (plural sandboys)

1. A boy who sells sand.
   • 1880, George MacDonald, Sir Gibbie, Hurst and Blackett:

     Up and down the street not a child was to be seen. A sandboy with a donkey cart was the sole human arrangement in it.

2. (in similes) A proverbially happy or jolly person.
   • 1910, O Henry, “The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball”, in The Trimmed Lamp:

     Drink always rubbed him the right way, and he would reach his rooms as jolly as a sandboy.

   • 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 23:

     Craw was happy as a sandboy, he reported: quite his former vile self, but a bit dazed to be bearded by Luke without warning.

Derived terms

• happy as a sandboy
• jolly as a sandboy

Anagrams

• bonyads