attaboy

attaboy

See also: atta boy

English

Alternative forms

• atta boy, ataboy
• thatta boy, thattaboy

Etymology

Variant pronunciation of "That's the boy!", a cry of encouragement, especially to children and pet dogs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈætəˌbɔɪ/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Interjection

attaboy

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) Used to show encouragement or approval to a boy, man, or male animal.

   Attaboy! That's the way to hit a home run!

Translations

Used to show encouragement or approval to a boy or a man

Chinese: Mandarin: 好樣的／好样的 (zh) (hǎoyàngde) Finnish: aika poika (fi) French: bon gars m Georgian: ყოჩაღ (ka) (q̇očaɣ) German: gut gemacht, guter Junge m Irish: maith mo ghasúr é Japanese: でかした (ja) (dekashita), いいぞ (ja) (ii zo), うまいぞ (ja) (umai zo) Kurdish: Northern Kurdish: eferim Polish: zuch chłopak m Russian: молоде́ц (ru) m (molodéc), молодчи́на (ru) m or f (molodčína) Spanish: !bien hecho! Swedish: heja (sv)

Noun

attaboy (plural attaboys)

1. A cry of "attaboy"; an accolade.
   • 2007 June 30, David M. Halbfinger, “How a Fan of Comic Books Transformed Himself Into a Hollywood Player”, in New York Times‎:

     LOS ANGELES, June 29 — Drink in hand, attaboys coming at him from every direction, Tom DeSanto was living the fanboy dream.

See also

• attagirl