boss

«boss» in Mova's school dictionary: the person in charge at work who tells others what to do — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (boss, bosses); verb (boss, bosses, bossed, bossing — boss around)

meaning for a pupil

1) A boss is the person in charge at work who tells others what to do. tree →

2) To boss someone around is to keep telling them what to do in an unkind way. tree →

3) In video games a boss is a very strong enemy at the end of a level. tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life parents and adults have bosses at work. In manners and friendship lessons being bossy is a problem: good leaders ask and share. In games children fight the boss at the end of a level. Phrases: the boss, boss around, be your own boss, bossy.

examples

• My mum's boss gave her a day off. tree →
• Who's the boss here? tree →
• Stop bossing me around! tree →
• The boss of the shop opened the doors. tree →
• He wants to be his own boss one day. tree →
• I beat the final boss in the game. tree →
• My sister is so bossy. tree →

note

Plural «bosses» (add -es after s). «Bossy» (adjective) means always telling others what to do — it is not a compliment. «Boss around» is informal. A boss is in charge; workers or staff work for the boss.

In the corpora

• In Liverpool "boss" means great; in the East Midlands "me duck" is a friendly way to address someone.
• When a boss is forced out, the press release often says he is leaving "to spend more time with family".
• Losing a job is painful and frightening, so bosses, newspapers and governments reach for soft words when they talk about it.
• Kai's mate swore he'd beaten the final boss «in like ten minutes, bro».
• Barging in and bossing people about makes others want you out; fitting in first works better.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «boss» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.