Attaboy Definition

ătə-boi

interjection

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

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

American Heritage

Indicating approval or encouragement.

Webster's New World

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

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

Wiktionary

noun

A cry of "attaboy"; an accolade.

Wiktionary

Other Word Forms of Attaboy

Singular:

attaboy

Plural:

attaboys

It has otherwise been suggested that attaboy goes back to the hunters’ language, in which boy acquired the meaning “hunted animal.” attaboy (ataboy, as it is sometimes spelled, because no one knows the “right” spelling of this phrase) would go back to "a tout a boy!" ("a tout", a call to incite dogs). (Attaboy! Or, The Male-Intimate Affectionate Overtones Questions By Anatoly Liberman, December 13th, 2006)

From Wiktionary
The OED gives 'attaboy' as a "careless pronunciation" of "that's the boy!", though the more common expression is "that's a [good] boy!", which derives from the expressions "That's my [good] boy" which first appears in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.

From Wiktionary
Alteration of That's the boy!

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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