ˈlink-boy
[link n.3]
A boy employed to carry a link to light passengers along the streets.
| 1660 Pepys Diary 4 Feb., Thence to Sir Harry Wright's, and after that with a link-boy home. 1716 Gay Trivia iii. 114 Nor need th' officious Link-Boy's smoaky Light. 1739 J. Mottley Joe Miller's Jests No. 239 A Link-Boy cry'd, Have a Light, Gentlemen? 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxxvi, The red glare of the link-boy's torch. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. xvii. 161 Link-boys with their torches lighted the beaux over the mud. |
| fig. 1698 Farquhar Love & Bottle iii. i, This is the page, love's link-boy, that must light me the way. |