BOSS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Boss

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/bɑs/ /bɔs/ Listen

noun

Boss n. (pl. bosses)

Any protuberant part; a round, swelling part or body; a knoblike process; as, a boss of wood.

A protuberant ornament on any work, either of different material from that of the work or of the same, as upon a buckler or bridle; a stud; a knob; the central projection of a shield. See Umbilicus.

(Arch.) A projecting ornament placed at the intersection of the ribs of ceilings, whether vaulted or flat, and in other situations.

A wooden vessel for the mortar used in tiling or masonry, hung by a hook from the laths, or from the rounds of a ladder.

(Mech.)

(a)

The enlarged part of a shaft, on which a wheel is keyed, or at the end, where it is coupled to another.

(b)

A swage or die used for shaping metals.

A head or reservoir of water. (Obs.)

Boss n. A master workman or superintendent; a director or manager; a political dictator. (Slang, U. S.)

verb

Boss v. t. (past & past part. bossed; pres. part. bossing) To ornament with bosses; to stud.

See images of 'Boss'

Etymology of 'Boss'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Boss" Quotes from Famous Books

... because Bud's old man is a Tammany boss—which gives Bud a big pull wid d' police. 'Nuff said, ...

— The Definite Object - A Romance of New York • Jeffery Farnol

... "Ye're not the boss?"—looking him over slowly from his feet up, a good-natured smile irradiating her face, her eyes beaming, every tooth glistening. "There's me hand, I'm glad to see ye. I've worked for ye off and on for four years, and niver laid eyes on ye till this minute. Don't ...

— Tom Grogan • F. Hopkinson Smith

... at first sight suppose to the ancient armourer's proceedings. The shield is formed of five superimposed plates of different metals, each plate of smaller diameter than the one immediately below it, their flat margins showing thus as four concentric stripes or rings of metal, around a sort of boss in the centre, five metals thick, and the outermost circle or ring being the thinnest. To this arrangement the order of Homer's description corresponds. The earth and the heavenly bodies are upon this boss in the ...

— Greek Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater

... head was lifted and two keen gray eyes, filled with mingled suffering and anger, looked full in the boss's face. "I've been without work for some time and am hungry, that's all." The head bent again over the case and the trembling fingers reached ...

— That Printer of Udell's • Harold Bell Wright

... alone, and he actually had the cleverness to become not only a banker, manufacturer, hotel-keeper, newspaper proprietor, editor and multi-millionaire, but also the principal of a college and the "boss" of a political party which acknowledged him as spiritual and temporal pope and numbered over sixty thousand adherents. He had ten tabernacles in Chicago, and ruled despotically the municipal affairs of one of the ...

— Modern Saints and Seers • Jean Finot

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