lad
part of speech
noun (a lad, lads)
meaning for a pupil
1) (informal, UK, Ireland, Australia, NZ) A lad is a boy or young man. tree →
2) (informal) "The lads" are a group of male friends. tree →
3) (informal) "Lad" is a friendly way of talking to a boy: "Well done, lad!" tree →
4) (slang, UK) A "lad" or "laddish" person is a loud young man who acts tough or rough. tree →
sense in the lessons
Common in everyday British, Irish and Northern English talk and in stories to show a friendly, warm or local voice. Phrases: a young lad, the lads, our lad (northern England: my son or brother), stable lad (worker with horses).
examples
- He's a good lad who helps his gran. tree →
- Come on, lads, let's play footy! tree →
- When I was a lad, we walked to school. tree →
- "Well played, lad," said the coach. tree →
- A young lad found the lost puppy. tree →
- The lads went fishing on Saturday. tree →
- Our lad is starting high school next week. tree →
- Three lads and two lasses joined the club. tree →
- "Father," answered the lad, "hear me! tree →
note
Informal; formal is "boy" or "young man". Female word: lass. Plural: lads. In US English "lad" sounds old-fashioned or British.
In the corpora
- In Scotland "wee" means small, so "wee man" is a fond way to say "little lad".
- At tea Grandad says: «Being frightened means you're a coward, lad.» Dad puts his fork down.
- Grandad said «just hit him back, lad, that's what I did in '72».
- Two lads in Leeds argued about who scored the winning goal in the playground.
- Jake joins boxing «to get hard, innit», expecting the big lads to batter him.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «lad» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.