doughboy

[doh-boi] /ˈdoʊˌbɔɪ/
noun
1.
Informal. an American infantryman, especially in World War I.
2.
a rounded mass of dough, boiled or steamed as a dumpling or deep-fried and served as a hot bread.
Origin
1675-85; dough + boy; sense “infantryman,” from mid-1860s, is obscurely derived; two plausible, but unsubstantiated claims: doughboy orig. referred to the globular brass buttons on infantry uniforms, likened to the pastry; dough referred to a clay used to clean the white uniform belts
British Dictionary definitions for doughboys

doughboy

/ˈdəʊˌbɔɪ/
noun
1.
(US, informal) an infantryman, esp in World War I
2.
dough that is boiled or steamed as a dumpling
Word Origin and History for doughboys

doughboy

n.

"U.S. soldier," 1864, American English, said to have been in oral use from 1854, or from the Mexican-American War (1847), it is perhaps from resemblance of big buttons on old uniforms to a sort of biscuit of that name (1680s), but there are various other conjectures.

doughboys in Culture

doughboys definition


United States infantry soldiers who served in World War I.

Slang definitions & phrases for doughboys

doughboy

noun

An infantry soldier; grunt, paddlefoot

[1867+; origin unknown; perhaps fr a resemblance between the buttons of the infantry uniform and doughboys, ''suet dumplings boiled in seawater,'' a term fr the British merchant marine]