likely lad
British colloquial term for a young man who shows promise, charm, or potential — often with a slight cheeky or roguish edge.
Definitions
British colloquial term for a young man who shows promise, charm, or potential — often with a slight cheeky or roguish edge. A likely lad is confident and capable, but the label hints at someone who might charm their way through life as much as earn it. Made widely familiar in the UK through the TV series 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?'
He was always the likely lad at school — top marks, star player, and a girl on each arm.
Comments
(UK, colloquial) A young man who shows potential.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
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