guy Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an informal term for a youth or man
    bozo; hombre; cat.
    • a nice guy
    • the guy's only doing it for some doll
  2. noun an effigy of Guy Fawkes that is burned on a bonfire on Guy Fawkes Day
  3. noun a cable, wire, or rope that is used to brace something (especially a tent)
    guy rope; guy wire; guy cable.
  4. verb subject to laughter or ridicule
    laugh at; make fun; ridicule; blackguard; poke fun; roast; rib; jest at.
    • The satirists ridiculed the plans for a new opera house
    • The students poked fun at the inexperienced teacher
    • His former students roasted the professor at his 60th birthday
  5. verb steady or support with a guy wire or cable
    • The Italians guyed the Tower of Pisa to prevent it from collapsing

WordNet

Guy noun
Etymology
Sp. guia guide, a guy or small rope used on board of ships to keep weighty things in their places; of Teutonic origin, and the same word as E. guide. See Guide, and cf. Gye.
Definitions
  1. A rope, chain, or rod attached to anything to steady it; as: a rope to steady or guide an object which is being hoisted or lowered; a rope which holds in place the end of a boom, spar, or yard in a ship; a chain or wire rope connecting a suspension bridge with the land on either side to prevent lateral swaying; a rod or rope attached to the top of a structure, as of a derrick, and extending obliquely to the ground, where it is fastened.
Guy transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Guyed ; present participle & verbal noun Guying
Definitions
  1. To steady or guide with a guy.
Guy noun
Definitions
  1. A grotesque effigy, like that of Guy Fawkes, dressed up in England on the fifth of November, the day of the Gunpowder Plot.
    The lady . . . who dresses like a guy. W. S. Gilbert.
  2. A person of queer looks or dress. Dickens.
Guy transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To fool; to baffle; to make (a person) an object of ridicule. Local & Collog U.S.

Webster 1913