sonny
/ˈsʌni
/noun informal
1Used by an older person as a familiar form of address for a young boy.You run along, sonny, and keep those thoughts to yourself....
- Anyway, just as we were leaving the Moor, their attention was diverted just long enough for a lovely couple to come up to me and say, ‘Here, sonny, would you like this goldfish?’
- The Stern company has been making pinball machines in Illinois since before you were around, sonny, and they still do today.
1.1 (also Sonny Jim) Used as a humorous or patronizing way of addressing a man: look, sonny Jim, that’s all I can tell you...
- And all he said was, with teasing smile - but he was dead serious, ‘It's sir to you, sonny.’
- ‘That means nothing here, sonny,’ hospital staff overheard a desk nurse say to the Australian Federal Police officer who had demanded they be allowed to pass.
- If we asked about it (pressure control) they told us ‘you don't have to worry about that sonny.’
