Lad n.
1. A boy; a youth; a stripling. “Cupid is a knavish lad.”
There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes. --John vi. 9.
2. A companion; a comrade; a mate.
Lad's love. Bot. See Boy's love, under Boy.
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Boy n.
1. A male child, from birth to the age of puberty; a lad; hence, a son.
My only boy fell by the side of great Dundee. --Sir W. Scott.
Note: ☞ Boy is often used as a term of comradeship, as in college, or in the army or navy. In the plural used colloquially of members of an associaton, fraternity, or party.
2. In various countries, a male servant, laborer, or slave of a native or inferior race; also, any man of such a race; -- considered derogatory by those so called, and now seldom used. [derog.]
He reverted again and again to the labor difficulty, and spoke of importing boys from Capetown. --Frances Macnab.
Boy bishop, a boy (usually a chorister) elected bishop, in old Christian sports, and invested with robes and other insignia. He practiced a kind of mimicry of the ceremonies in which the bishop usually officiated.
The Old Boy, the Devil. [Slang]
Yellow boys, guineas. [Slang, Eng.]
Boy's love, a popular English name of Southernwood (Artemisia abrotonum); -- called also lad's love.
Boy's play, childish amusements; anything trifling.