choirboy

choirboy [kwahyuh r-boi] ExamplesWord Origin noun

1. a boy who sings in a choir, especially a church choir.
2. Slang. a person who is notably honest, moral, or innocent.

Origin of choirboy First recorded in 1830–40; choir + boy Examples from the Web for choir-boy Historical Examples of choir-boy

In the night one hears the choir-boy ring the bell before the Host.

The Inferno

August Strindberg

The mind bent, warped and twisted, had contracted the ways of a choir-boy.

A Tour Through The Pyrenees

Hippolyte Adolphe Taine

And the choir-boy, a facetious man with a big sign of the cross, said grace.

Sentimental Education Vol 1

Gustave Flaubert

She looks like a cherub, or a choir-boy on a Christmas card.

Winona of the Camp Fire

Margaret Widdemer

First, to be a choir-boy; and, secondly, to dwell in Daddy Darwin’s Dovecot.

Jackanapes, Daddy Darwin’s Dovecot and Other Stories

Juliana Horatio Ewing

British Dictionary definitions for choir-boy choirboy noun

1. one of a number of young boys who sing the treble part in a church choir

Word Origin and History for choir-boy n.

also choir boy, 1769, from choir + boy. As a type of innocence, by 1885.