doughboy

Definitions


[ˈdəʊbɔɪ], (Noun)

Definitions:
- a boiled or deep-fried dumpling

- a United States infantryman, especially one in the First World War
(e.g: some 70 local young men went off to serve their country as doughboys)


Phrases:

Origin:
late 17th century: in doughboy. In doughboy it is said to have been a term applied in the American Civil War to the large globular brass buttons on the infantry uniform; it may also derive from the use of pipe clay ‘dough’ to clean the white belts worn by infantrymen




definition by Oxford Dictionaries