altar boy

noun

: a boy who assists the celebrant in a liturgical service

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

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But first, the kid and his fellow altar boy are gonna hot box a church congregation. —

David Fear, Rolling Stone, 31 July 2024 Dad was an altar boy at Parumala; his father, who is buried there along with my grandmother, was a deacon. —

Abraham Verghese, Travel + Leisure, 24 July 2024 The claim seems more aspirational than accurate, maybe even defensive—the altar boy claiming his right to the transfiguring blaze. —

Harper's Magazine, 25 June 2024 That disconcerting closeness of the cosmic and carnal was par for the course for Combs, an altar boy turned entrepreneur whose career is a monument to these and other striking dualities. —

Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 17 Apr. 2024 See all Example Sentences for altar boy