| 释义 |
▪ I. boss, n.1|bɒs|
Forms: 3–5 boce, 4–5 boos, 4–6 bos, 5 bose, 5–6 Sc. boys(s, 6–8 bosse, (7 bosce), 6– boss.
[ME. boce, bos, a. OF. boce (mod.F. bosse) = ONF. boche botch, It. bozza; perh. connected with OHG. bôz-an = beat v. In ME. boss and botch are partly synonymous, but the former is not recorded in the sense ‘pimple, boil’, nor the latter in the sense ‘boss of shield’, ‘ornamental stud’.]
1. a. A protuberance or swelling on the body of an animal or plant; a convex or knob-like process or excrescent portion of an organ or structure; in 16th c. applied to the lobe of the liver, spleen, etc.; as now used it seems partly transf. from 3.
1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋349 Somme of hem shewen the boce of hir shape. 1541Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg., It yssueth out of the bosse of the lyuer. 1658Rowland Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 990 It [the grashopper] is of a blackish green colour, having on each side two bunches or bosses of the same colour. 1677Grew Anat. Fruits v. §13 In the Centre of the Case, stands a great Parenchymous Boss. 1775Phil. Trans. LXV. 414 The large branches..covered with great bosses and knobs of gum. 1878Bartley tr. Topinard's Anthrop. ii. xii. 488 The Frontal bosses are often confluent. 1882Vines Sachs' Bot. 421 The cuticularised exospore, generally provided with ridges, bosses, spines, or granulations.
†b. spec. A hump or hunch on the back. Obs.
a1300Cursor M. 8087 Crumpled knes and boce [Gött. bouch] on bak. c1440Gesta Rom. (1879) 396 Entred a dwerfe..hauyng..a bose in his back, and Crokid fete. 1835Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. I. ii. 62 The ox of Surat is stated to have two of these bosses or humps.
†c. A protuberance made by padding the dress. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 124 In þis pryde synnen wymmen in makyng of hor bosis.
†d. The big bulk of an animal; a bulky animal.
1399Langl. Rich. Redeless iii. 98 But tho all the berlingis brast out at ones..That bosse [the bear] was unbounde and brouute to his owene. 1657Reeve God's Plea Ep. Ded. 3 An Elephant thus praised for his great Bosce, or a fat Bull of Basan for his wellfleshed flanks.
†e. A fat woman. Obs.
1579Lyly Euphues 115 If she be well sette, then call hir a Bosse. 1586Marlowe 1st Pt. Tamburl. iii. iii, Disdainful Turkess, and unreverend boss. 1632Sherwood s.v. Bosse, A fatt Bosse, femme bien grasse et grosse.
2. A knoll or mass of rock; in Geol. applied chiefly to masses of rock protruding through strata of another kind.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas i. vii. (1641) 59/1 Here from a craggy Rocks steep-hanging boss..A silver Brook in broken streams doth gush. 1839Murchison Silur. Syst. i. xxxvi. 483 This little boss of Ludlow rocks has been thrust up through the environing coal measures. 1863A. Ramsay Phys. Geog. 31 In the midst of a tract of mica-schist..a boss of granite rises. 1879Rutley Stud. Rocks iii. 15 Eruptive rocks which have formed intrusive bosses, or dykes.
3. a. A round prominence in hammered or carved work, etc.; e.g. a raised ornament in bookbinding (in earlier use, esp. the ‘umbo’ or round knob, often of precious metal, which occupied the centre of the cover); one of the metal knobs on each side of the bit of a bridle (F. bossette); a metal stud used for ornament. † in boss: in high relief; cf. F. en bosse.
1382Wyclif Isa. iii. 18 The Lord shal don awei the ournement of shon, and boces, and beȝes. 1395E.E. Wills (1882) 5 A basyn of siluer with boses apon the brerdes. c1440Promp. Parv. 41 Boce or boos of a booke or oþer lyke [H. booce], turgiolum. 1563–87Foxe A. & M. I. 232/2 The bosses of his Bridle were worth a great treasure. 1651Davenant Gondibert ii. vi. xlvi, Where all harmonious Instruments they spie Drawn out in Bosse. 1660Pepys Diary 2 Nov., In the afternoon I..saw some silver bosses put upon my new Bible. 1662Evelyn Chalcogr. (1769) 18 Those who..work in bosse with the puntion. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. 349 The Bosses of the Bridle had stuck in his Teeth. 1879Print. Trades Jrnl. xxvi. 8 Enriched with elaborate metal bosses.
b. spec. The convex projection in the centre of a shield or buckler.
c1386Chaucer Miller's T. 80 A brooch sche baar..As brood as is the boos of a bokeler. 1483Cath. Angl. 37 A Bose [A. Boste] of a buclere, vmbo. a1547Surrey æneid ii. 287 Hidden behind her targetes bosse they crept. 1611Bible Job xv. 26 He runneth vpon him..vpon the thicke bosses of his bucklers. 1729T. Cooke Tales, Prop. &c. 117 See on his Shield's thin Boss the Greecian stand. 1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 17 A shield of steel, the bosses and rim of which were set with diamonds and rubies.
c. transf. and fig.
1791Cowper Odyss. i. 65 In yonder woodland isle, the central boss Of Ocean. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. §5. 39 The sunbeams struck his crown, and converted it into a boss of gold. 1881Grant Allen in Knowledge No. 4. 66 A bee..flies straight towards the blossom and settles on the little boss of carpels in the centre.
†d. = bossell. Obs. rare.
1497Accts. Founder's Guild in Archæol. Jrnl. XLIII. 165 A maser wt a boos and an hert of siluer ouer gilted. 1499Ibid. 167 A masar wt a hollow boyss prynted with a hewar.
e. Arch. An ornamental projection in a vault at the intersection of the ribs.
1823Rutter Fonthill 9 Bosses of foliage and fruit..cover the intersections. 1849Freeman Archit. 393 The spandrils, cornices, and bosses allow of any amount of enrichment. 1884Church Bells 6 Sept. 940 In the roof are bosses, on one of which is carved a bear and ragged staff, for Beauchamp.
f. Mech. ‘The enlarged part of a shaft, on which a wheel is keyed, or at the end, where it is coupled to another’ (Webster). Ship-building. The projecting part of the stern-post of a screw steamer, which is pierced for the shaft of the propeller to pass through. (Cf. F. bosse nave of a wheel.)
1869E. J. Reed Ship Build. iv. 70 The boss on the post was forged in the usual manner. Ibid. xx. 436 Where a plate has a large amount of twist, such as boss plates, etc., special means are employed to ensure accuracy. 1878Markham Gt. Frozen Sea xi. 157 The ice formed so quickly in the ‘boss’ that it..prevented the shaft from entering.
g. A soft pad used in ceramics and glass-manufacture for smoothing and making uniform the colours applied with oil to a glass or porcelain surface, and for cleaning gilded surfaces.
1860Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 5) III. 506 The ‘boss’ is made of soft leather. a1877Knight Dict. Mech. s.v. Bossing, The bossing is laid on with a hair-pencil, and leveled with a boss of soft leather. 1879E. C. Hancock Amat. Pott. & Glass Painter 49 The boss consists of a lump of cotton wool, screwed up, as it were, in two or three thicknesses of fine soft linen. 1961M. Jones Potbank xii. 44 Bert..polished it [sc. a plate] with a boss—a piece of cloth stuffed with wool.
h. The central portion of the propeller of an aeroplane.
1916H. Barber Aeroplane Speaks iv. 121 If a weight..placed in a bolt-hole on one side of the boss fails to disturb the balance, then the propeller is usually regarded as unfit for use.
4. A sort of die used by cutlers.
1831J. Holland Manuf. Metals I. 213 From this foundation plate rises the bed or boss. Ibid. II. 23 It [the fork] in this red hot state is next placed in a cut steel boss or die, upon which another boss exactly adapted is made to fall.
5. attrib. and Comb., as boss-maker; † boss-backed a., hump-backed; boss-nail (see quot.); boss-stone, the stone fixed at the intersection of the ribs in groined vaulting; boss-tip, the point of the boss of a shield; boss-work.
1639Horn & Robotham Gate Lang. Unl. xvi. (1643) §175 For the bosbacked (bunch-backt) camell serves in stead of a waggon.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Bosseteur, a *bossemaker.
1697Evelyn Numism. i. 11 Leather Money, through which a small *boss-nail of Silver was struck in the middle.
1879Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. II. 212 They made the upper surface of the *boss-stone horizontal.
1855Singleton Virgil I. 294 And on his buckler's *boss-tip idly hung.
1697Lond. Gaz. No. 3347/8 A Cane Couch embroidered with *Boss-work upon green Velvet.
▪ II. † boss, n.2 Obs.
Also bosse.
[Of uncertain etymology: perh. only a sense of the prec. Compare, however, F. buse, buise conduit, though this alone could not give boss, unless through assimilation to the preceding.]
‘A water conduit, running out of a gor-bellied figure’, Bailey 1731: chiefly in ‘the Boss of Billingsgate’.
c1520W. de Worde (title) Treatyse of a Galaunt, with the Maryage of the Fayre Pusell the Bosse of Byllyngesgate unto London Stone. 1539Godly Sayng in Furnivall Ballads fr. MSS. I. 315 When the bosse of byllyngate wa[x]ythe so merye To daunce with a bagpype at scala celi, & the crose of chepeside dothe kepe a scole of fence. 1603Stow Surv. (1842) 160/1 Then have ye a boss of sweet water in the wall of the churchyard. 1657Howell Londinop. 85 Bosse Alley, so called of a Bosse of Spring-water. 1731in Bailey.
▪ III. † boss, n.3 Obs. Sc.
Also 4 bose, 5–7 boce.
[Origin obscure: cf. OF. busse cask; also Du. bus ‘box’, bos (orig. the same) ‘package, bundle, truss’.]
1. A cask; esp. a small cask; a leathern butt or bottle for wine, etc.
c1375? Barbour St. Cecile 532, I cane wele find Þi poweste lik a bose, of wynd Þat fillit ware. 1489Act. Dom. Conc. 129 (Jam.) Twa chalder of mele out of a boce..thre malvysy bocis price of the pece viiis. vid. c1505Dunbar Friars of Berwik 157 Haif thair ane pair of bossis, gud and fyne Thay hald ane gallone full of Gascone wyne. 1552Lyndesay Monarche 2579 Thocht sum of ȝow be gude of conditione, Reddy for to ressaue new recent wyne, I speik to ȝow auld bosis [v.r. boisis bossis] of perditione. c1565R. Lindsay Chron. Scotl. (1728) 82 To send for two bosses of wine..The bosses were of the quantity of two gallons the piece. c1570Leg. Bp. St. Andrews in Scot. Poems 16th C. II. 338 Tua leathering bosses he hes bought. c1600J. Burel in Watson Coll. Poems II. 26 (Jam.) Cryis..As wind within a boce.
2. old boss: a term of contempt applied to persons (Sc.). Cf. sense 1, quot. 1552. [But it may be a distinct word: cf. ON. bossi, Sw. buss fellow. See discussion in Jamieson.]
1566Knox Hist. Ref. (1732) 34 (Jam.) Hay Dean of Restalrig, and certane auld bosses with him. Ibid. Wks. 1846 I. 127 The Bischope preached to his jackmen, and to some old bosses of the toune.
▪ IV. boss, n.4
Also 6 boos, 7–8 bosse.
[? a. MDu. bosse, busse, mod.Du. bos, bus = box.]
A plasterer's tray, a hod.
1542MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Bowht a trowell a boos and a syffe. 1611Cotgr., Clifoire, a Plaisterers tray, or bosse. 1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 248 A Bosse, made of Wood, with an Iron Hook, to hang on the Laths, or on a Ladder, in which the Labourer puts the Morter which the Tyler uses. 1875Gwilt Archit. Gloss.
▪ V. † boss, n.5 Obs. exc. dial.|bɒs|
[? corruption of bass n.2; but cf. Du. bos bottle of straw.]
A seat consisting of or resembling a bundle of straw; a hassock.
1695Westmacott Script. Herb. 179 Bull-Rushes make Bosses and Bed-mats best. 1727Swift Gulliver iv. ii. Round which they sat on their haunches upon bosses of straw. 1841S. C. Hall Ireland I. 83 The family sit on stools and bosses (the boss is a low seat made of straw).
▪ VI. boss, n.6|bɒs|
[ad. Du. baas master (older sense ‘uncle’), supposed to be related to Ger. base female cousin, OHG. basa ‘aunt’.]
a. An orig. American equivalent of ‘master’ in the sense of employer of labour; applied also to a business manager, or any one who has a right to give orders. In England at first only in workmen's slang, or humorously, = ‘leading man, swell, top-sawyer’; now in general use in Britain.
[a1649J. Winthrop Hist. New England (1908) I. 166 Here arrived a small Norsey bark..with one Gardiner, an expert engineer or work base [= Du. werk-baas], and provisions. 1653F. Newman et al. Let. May in E. Hazard Hist. Collections (1794) II. 236 From our Place of Residence at the Basses house in the Monhatoes. ]1806W. Irving Let. 26 May in P. M. Irving Life & Lett. (1862) I. xi. 138, I had to return, make an awkward apology to boss, and look like a nincompoop. 1813Ld. Yarmouth Let. 12 Dec. in E. Taylor Taylor Papers (1913) vii. 98 There are some peasants watching, one of whom has frightened the boss with an alarm of a sortie. 1822J. Flint Lett. Amer. 9 Master is not a word in the vocabulary of hired people. Bos, a Dutch one of similar import, is substituted. 1830Galt Lawrie T. iii. ii. (1849) 86 The overseer of the roads..could give me employment as a boss, or foreman. 1868W. Whitman To Working Men (Rossetti) 102 Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you? 1870M. Bridgman R. Lynne II. ix. 187 We shall have one of the head bosses of the medical profession down here. 1936G. B. Shaw Millionairess Pref. 106 A born boss is one who rides roughshod over us by some mysterious power that separates him from our species and makes us fear him. Ibid. 128 Clearly we shall be boss-ridden in one form or another. 1937‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier viii. 157 The accent and manners which stamp you as one of the boss class. 1962Listener 16 Aug. 238/1 Most people make mistakes when they start a new job, and it is irritating for the boss.
b. In American politics, a manager or dictator of a party organization.
1882H. Spencer in Standard 31 Oct. 5/7 Those who framed your Constitution never dreamed that twenty thousand citizens would go to the poll led by a ‘boss’.
c. attrib. Of persons: master, chief. Of things: most esteemed, ‘champion’. Now esp. in U.S. slang: excellent, wonderful; good, ‘great’; masterly.
1836in J. R. Commons Doc. Hist. Amer. Industr. Soc. (1910) IV. 287, I am a boss shoemaker. 1840J. P. Kennedy Quodlibet 221 Charley Moggs, long known as the boss loafer of Bickerbray. 1848W. E. Burton Waggeries 63 (Th.), ‘How d'ye do, folks?’..‘is the boss devil to hum?’ 1860Bartlett Dict. Amer. s.v., We hear of a boss-carpenter, a boss-bricklayer, boss-shoemaker, etc. instead of master-carpenter, etc. 1877Besant & Rice Son of Vulc. i. xiv. 150 ‘Good God A'mighty in heaven!’ said the boss boatman, who was a religious man. 1881N. York Nation 3 Feb., No country in the world could make such a boss-show as the United States. 1884Lisbon (Dakota) Star 29 Aug., The boss thresher of Ransom county. Ibid. 10 Oct., They are of the ‘Welcome’ variety, and are the boss oats. 1961Metronome Apr. 32 The arrangements by Clayton are effortless and elegant—he has always been a boss arranger. 1964L. Hairston in J. H. Clarke Harlem 288 That's boss, Baby—the best I ever seen. 1967P. Welles Babyhip xxxv. 256 ‘I'm going with you to New York.’.. ‘Yeah?’ she said, ‘you're going with me. Oh, I think that's boss... It's just boss. It's truly, truly, boss. Maybe, I'll keep the Kama Sutra for us.’ 1970T. Southern Blue Movie 17 And her mouth was boss beauty; her lips were like young Rita Hayworth's..; and her teeth were..perfect. 1984M. Amis Money 41, I have to tell you right off that Martina Twain is a real boss chick by anyone's standards.
d. Comb. boss-boy S. Afr. (see boy n.1 3 e); boss-cocky, -cockie Austral. slang [cocky n.2 2], a farmer who employs labour and works himself; hence in extended use, a person in authority; boss-man (orig. U.S.) = boss n.6 a; boss of (or over) the board [board n. 2 d] Austral. and N.Z., the overseer of a shearing-shed.
1898Morris Austral English 46/1 Boss-cockie. 1916J. B. Cooper Coo-oo-ee i. 16 Mrs. Muller, before she married the German, was Kate Hardley, the daughter of a boss cockie farmer fifty miles away. 1928‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xiii. 218 Rab was the boss cocky of it [sc. an orchestra]. 1969Coast to Coast 1967–8 5 But what was her place now? She was a kind of boss cocky.
1934C. Carmer Stars fell on Alabama (1935) iv. iv. 212 When old man Huckaby died a year ago Wade came up to the house and stayed night and day, waiting on the old boss-man. 1965H. Gold Man who was not with It xii. 103 Bossman on the biggest power-generator Sunday school show in the South⁓land. 1969J. Wainwright Big Tickle 25 Divisional Chief Superintendent Sullivan..was boss-man of North End Division.
1896H. Lawson While Billy Boils xiv. 89 There are tally lies..and lies about getting the best of squatters and bosses-over-the-board. Ibid. xlii. 253 The third shearer was telling a yarn... ‘So I said to the boss-over-the-board, ‘you're a nice sort of a thing,’ I sez.’ 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career xxii. 186 A big strike among the shearers when the narrator had been boss-of-the-board out beyond Bourke. 1948V. Palmer Golconda vii. 51 Macy the Battler, they had called him at his last shearing-shed after he had tackled a nagging boss-of-the-board.
▸ boss boy n. chiefly S. Afr. (now usu. considered offensive) a black foreman or overseer, esp. in a mine (cf. boy n.1 1a(b), mine-boy n. at mine n. Compounds 2).
1906Daily Chron. 11 Apr. 3/6 One white man in the mine is expected to ‘boss’ forty blacks or Chinese, which he cannot do with safety, in fact the black ‘*boss-boy’ is left to do much of the blasting. 1953F. Robb Sea Hunters iv. 28 On deck..Ndwe, the Induna or bossboy, heaved on the vang and centred the boom over the gaping hatchway. 1998A. McCall Smith No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (2003) ii. 22 The white miner would pretend to give the orders, but he knew that it would be the boss boy who really got the work done.
▪ VII. boss, n.7 U.S.|bɒs|
[app. the same word as Eng. dial. (south-western) borse, boss, buss six-months-old or half-grown calf (1790 Grose Prov. Dict., etc.).]
A word used in addressing a cow. (Cf. bossy n.) Also, the American bison.
1800in Wash. Hist. Quart. (1928) XIX. 268 The Indians traded..Tongues and Bosses. 1848Bartlett Dict. Amer., Boss, among the hunters of the prairies, a name for the buffalo. 1874Rep. Vermont Board Agric. II. 706 So-o-o boss! There, you've kicked it over—All that milk, now, I declare! 1901Nation 18 Apr. 314/2 The call ‘Co’ boss is familiar to most of the inhabitants of our Northern States and Canada.
▪ VIII. boss, n.8
= boss-shot.
1898Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., He then tried to jump the ditch to the big stone, but in his hurry he made a boss and fell into the water.
▪ IX. boss, a. Sc.|bɒs|
Also 6 bois, bos, 7 bosse.
[perh. connected with boss n.3, where some quotations refer to hollowness. But the notion may be ‘turgid, swollen’; cf. boss n.1, v.1]
Hollow. lit. and fig. boss window: bay window.
1513Douglas æneis ii. ii.[i.] 73 With the straik, The bois cavys sowndit and maid a dyn. c1565R. Lindsay Chron. Scotl. 235 (Jam.) The lordis..who war entred in the bos window. 1597Lowe Chirurg. (1634) 231, I use a little Instrument of silver, that is bosse or hollow within. 1719Ramsay Wks. (1848) I. 156 If these be solid ware or boss. 1834H. Miller Scenes & Leg. xii. (1857) 180 Making boss professions of goodwill.
b. Empty.
a1758Ramsay Poems I. 285 (Jam.) He said, he gloom'd, and shook his thick boss head. 1832–53Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs) Ser. ii. 89 I'm sure ye're neither boss nor dry.
c. Without resources, powerless.
a1600A. Hume Ep. G. Moncrief, They are bot stocks and stanes; bos, deif and dumb. 1768Ross Helenore 21 (Jam.) He's nae boss, six score o' lambs this year.
▪ X. boss, v.1|bɒs|
Also 4 boosen, 5 bos, boce, 5–6 booce.
[f. boss n.1]
†1.
a. trans. To make to project, to stuff out. Obs.
c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 124 Soche men þat boosen hor brestis.
†b. intr. To swell out, project. Obs.
c1400Destr. Troy 3022 The here of hir hede, huyt as the gold, Bost out vppon brede bright on to loke. c1449Pecock Repr. ii. ii. 138 Ymagis boocing and seemyng as thouȝ thei were going and passing out of the wal. 1540T. Raynalde Birth Man i. vii. (1634) 29 The middle part of the wombe port..where it bosseth downeward..hangeth pendant wise. 1542Udall Erasm. Apophth. 235 a, With a great bunche, which, bossyng out, made him crookebacked.
2. a. trans. To fashion in relief; to beat or press out into a raised ornament, to emboss.
c1400Destr. Troy 1564 Ymagry ouer all amyt þere was..Bost out of þe best þe byg toures vmbe. 1530Palsgr. 459/1, I booce or to boce out, as workemen do a holowe thynge. 1881Porcelain Wks. Worcester 21 The workman..bosses it [the clay] with a wet sponge, and presses it into every line of the pattern.
b. In ceramics, to smooth a surface of boiled oil on pottery by means of a boss (boss n.1 3 g).
1860Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 5) III. 506 A coat of boiled oil adapted to the purpose being laid upon the ware with a pencil, and afterwards levelled, or as it is technically termed ‘bossed’, until the surface is perfectly uniform. 1879[see bossing vbl. n.1 d]. 1881[see boss v.1 2, where this quot. is wrongly placed].
3. To furnish or ornament with bosses.
c1626Dick of Devon. iii. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. (1883) II. 46 But was ever English horse thus Spanish bitted and bossd! 1650Fuller Pisgah iv. vi. 112 Either only studded or bossed therewith. 1664Pepys Diary (1879) III. 5 Thence to the clasp-makers to have it [my Chaucer] clasped and bossed. 1849Ruskin Sev. Lamps i. x. 20 Do not let us boss our roofs with wretched half-worked blunt-edged rosettes.
fig.1583Stubbes Anat. Abus. ii. 50 Then shall your mouth be bossed with the lather.
▪ XI. boss, v.2 colloq. (orig. U.S.)|bɒs|
[f. boss n.6]
trans. To be the master or manager of; to manage, control, direct. to boss it: to act as master.
1856Nat. Intelligencer 3 Nov. (Bartlett) The little fellow that bosses it over the crowd. a1860Pluribustah (Bartlett) Let his Woman's Rights companion Boss the house. 1866Reader 3 Nov. 913 Bossed by Uncle Andreas Darling, day by day the dwelling grew. 1882Sala in Illust. Lond. News 25 Feb., The gentleman..bossing the band of pioneers. 1882W. D. Hay Brighter Britain I. vi. 166 The way that Old Colonial ‘bossed’ them round was an edifying sight to see. 1933C. A. Macdonald Pages from Past v. 62 He ‘bossed’ a timber-cutting camp. 1944R. Lehmann Ballad & Source i. iv. 35 ‘Well, I won't be bossed by her,’ she said gruffly.
▪ XII. boss, v.3 dial. and slang.|bɒs|
[Cf. boss-eyed, boss-shot.]
trans. To miss or bungle (a shot); gen. to bungle, make a mess of. Also absol.
1887N. & Q. III. 236/2 To boss is schoolboy slang for ‘to miss’. 1889Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang s.v., To boss anything, to make a mess of it, to spoil it. 1898Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., He had six shies at the cocoa-nuts, and he bossed every time. 1903‘Marjoribanks’ Fluff-Hunters 74 You're simply bossing up the whole show by philandering with a widow.
▪ XIII. boss
dial. f. buss v., to kiss.
1691Ray N.C. Wds. s.v. Osse, Ossing comes to bossing. Prov. Chesh. |