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bossy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bossy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bossy in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
bossy you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From boss + -y.
Adjective
bossy (comparative bossier, superlative bossiest)
- 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, 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
Derived terms
Translations
tending to give orders to others
Etymology 2
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
bossy (plural bossies)
- (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
From boss + -y.
Adjective
bossy (comparative more bossy, superlative most bossy)
- Ornamented with bosses; studded.
Anagrams
Lower Sorbian
Adjective
bossy
- Obsolete spelling of bósy.