Wiktionary

bossy

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From boss ‎ -y.

Adjective

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bossy (comparative bossier, superlative bossiest)

  1. Tending to give orders to others, especially when unwarranted; domineering.
    • 1994, Jackie Collins, Hollywood Kids:
      Over in the wardrobe department a bossy woman in ill-fitting dungarees tried to talk her into wearing a short red low-cut dress for the test.
    • 2019, Fancy Feast, “On Being a Fetish”, in Jewish Currents‎[1], number Summer 2019:
      Where American Jewish men contend with stereotypes of being oversexed, needy, nebbishy and neurotic (like Woody Allen, boo hiss), Jewish women are cast as withholding, bossy, exotic, and materialistic (like Fran Drescher, which honestly? Goals).
Synonyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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Diminutive of dialectal English boss, as used in the term boss-calf (which, like buss-calf, is a variant form of boose-calf, a calf kept in a boose (“stall”)).

Noun

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bossy (plural bossies)

  1. (US, informal, dated) A cow or calf.
    • 1903 February, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Hygeia at the Solito”, in Everybody’s Magazine, volume VIII, number 2, New York, N.Y.: John Wanamaker, →ISSN, page 174, column 1:
      A week before, while riding the prairies, Raidler had come upon a sick and weakling calf deserted and bawling. Without dismounting he had reached and slung the distressed bossy across his saddle, and dropped it at the ranch for the boys to attend to.

Etymology 3

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From boss ‎ -y.

Adjective

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bossy (comparative more bossy, superlative most bossy)

  1. Ornamented with bosses; studded.

Anagrams

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Lower Sorbian

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Adjective

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bossy

  1. Obsolete spelling of bósy.
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