“It was a hard life, but the young lad had no complaints. He worked from sun up until sun down.”

“Fiscal knew how cunning and obstinate this bold lad could be.”

“Clearly amused, a young lad peered at me through the hood of his woollen djellaba.”

“Likewise, certain kinds of men who are on our side are let off with being laddy, gropey, handsy because, hell knows, the other lot are worse.”

“Boyishly handsome, mildly laddy, and serving up material about the trials of relationships and modern technology?”

“Would Britpop even have had its true mainstream moment without the Gallaghers' laddy yang to balance the Albarnites' arty yin?”

“I think this one started when he was just a wee laddie with a ladybird book on weather but it was reincarnated last week.”

“I'm not a daft wee laddie, and I know that happens, but it doesn't normally happen quite so blatantly, so I was annoyed and angry.”

“The laddie from The Lakes is known as a gobby upstart with a taste for the grim things in life.”

“The three lads topped up their dole cheques with some cash-in-hand building work for Alan's dad, a building contractor.”

“The lads again pulled out a dramatic victory in a match full of drama and excitement.”

“The owner of a valuable prize Shih-tzu commissions the lads to dognap another champion Shih-tzu which belongs to his ex-lover and biggest rival.”

“The rest of the book remains cursedly metal-free, yet filled to the brim with confused laddies.”

“In the past few years I've lost four captains and four top goalscorers, and I've had to replace them with laddies.”

“He and his ilk are constantly pilloried for their behaviour and slammed for showing other daft wee laddies a poor example.”