altar boy
nounDefinition of altar boy
1
: a boy who assists the celebrant in a liturgical service
2
chiefly US
: a morally pure and virtuous person
No one expects … the trendsetter and party animal to become an altar boy.— Johnnie L. Roberts
—typically used in negative constructions to describe a man whose behavior is not entirely admirable or blameless A long time ago she married a man who turns out, by his own admission, to be somewhat dishonest—not a killer, not a dope peddler, but no altar boy, either.— Richard Cohen
Examples of altar boy in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Formative years included daily activities at the North End Boys and Girls Club, serving as altar boy at St. Augustine Cathedral, and caddying from the age of 9 at Brooklawn Country Club where Raymond was also a lifeguard. — courant.com, "Raymond R. Norko," 1 Sep. 2019 The Jonathan Glazer film was booed by critics at its 2004 Venice premiere, but one can offer nothing but high praise for Kidman’s ability to pull off altar boy hair. — Sangeeta Singh-kurtz, Quartzy, "A brief history of Nicole Kidman’s iconic wigs," 22 Aug. 2019 One graduated from grade school there in 1956 and served as an altar boy. — oregonlive.com, "Reverence and resistance in one of Portland’s oldest Catholic churches," 11 Aug. 2019 Denton confided in an older altar boy, who said Apuron had abused him too. — Washington Post, "Guam’s ex-archbishop shielded culture of clergy sex abuse," 10 Aug. 2019 As a child, Dwight learned Latin and served as an altar boy at his local Catholic parish. — Emily Ludolph, New York Times, "Ed Dwight Was Set to Be the First Black Astronaut. Here’s Why That Never Happened.," 16 July 2019 Sure, for a six-year altar boy, the pride of the nuns at Cathedral High, Buoniconti’s ascension to play football at Notre Dame in 1958 seemed the apex of Catholic dreams. — S.l. Price, SI.com, "‘I Feel Lost. I Feel Like a Child’: The Complicated Decline of Nick Buoniconti," 9 May 2017 Both served as altar boys, and later, in the early 1970s, Clash played drums when St. Mary’s experimented with rock music as part of its mass and at St. Mary’s Teen Club dances. — Kevin Leonard, baltimoresun.com, "Jim Clash: Laurel’s own George Plimpton continues legacy of participatory journalism," 18 July 2019 Archbishop Wilson was convicted in May of failing to tell police about another priest who molested altar boys in the 1970s. — Rob Taylor And, WSJ, "New Laws Require Priests to Break the ‘Seal of Confession’," 3 Aug. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'altar boy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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