[LINK sb.3] A boy employed to carry a link to light passengers along the streets.

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1660.  Pepys, Diary, 4 Feb. Thence to Sir Harry Wright’s, and after that with a link-boy home.

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1716.  Gay, Trivia, III. 114. Nor need th’ officious Link-Boy’s smoaky Light.

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1739.  J. Mottley, Joe Miller’s Jests, No. 239. A Link-Boy cry’d, Have a Light, Gentlemen?

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1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxxvi. The red glare of the link-boy’s torch.

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1854.  Thackeray, Newcomes, I. xvii. 161. Link-boys with their torches lighted the beaux over the mud.

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  fig.  1698.  Farquhar, Love & Bottle, III. i. This is the page, love’s link-boy, that must light me the way.

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