Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also bozz) superior, important, influential.

1833		Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Oct. 5 n.p.: The Boss segar makers did not come up to scratch with their specie.
1835		W. Otter Hist. of My Own Times (1995) 112: The boss carpenter was awake when we entered the room; he asked us WHAT’S BROKE, said he. I told him we were on a sort of a Jerry, and wished to get a bed for that night if we could.
1840		Solomon Secondthoughts’ [J.P. Kennedy] Quodlibet (1872) 244: The fifer was no other than Charley Moggs, long known as the boss loafer of Bickerbray .
1854		Democrat & Sentinel (Ebensburg, PA) 25 Oct. 1/4: One of the most eminent men of this class that we ever knew, was a ‘boss carpenter’’.
1867		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward in London in Complete Works (1922) 425: Not one of these common poits [...] but a Boss Poit — also a philosopher.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 39: Yes, sir, he’s got me! He’s about three lengths ahead o’ me, as these boss fellers says, an’ I don’t know but what I’m distanced.
1877		News & Herald (Winnsboro, SC) 21 July 1/5: The boss catcher, Bob Scott, caught and redeemed from death a bright poodle.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Oct. 6/3: ‘He must be the boss sucker’.
1884		Sporting Times 4 Oct. 7/1: A city is a town where the principal church is called a cathedral and the boss parson a Bishop .
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 31 Jan. 11/2: [T]he vehicle was boarded by one of Cobb’s boss employés, who, to put it mildly, had evidently anticipated Christmas, and had been where the golden corn was waving.
1889		Kipling ‘The Shadow of His Hand’ in Civil & Military Gaz. 2 Aug. (1909) 41: It didn't please him any to receive invitations from the boss fighting men of ’Frisco.
1891		J.A. Riis How the Other Half Lives 73: With a swinging blow of his club he knocked the faucet out of the keg and the half-filled can from the boss hag’s hand.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 64: If he wanted [...] everybody believe he was a Nobby and Boss Minister he would have to hand out a little Guff.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 Oct. 1/6: The Port’s boss bounder did in a quid over the elections.
1908		N.Y. Eve. Journal 31 Jan. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 14: Pulliam’s new fighting ‘ump’ [...] was the boss banisher of the year.
1910		C.E.W. Bean On the Wool Track 247: A ‘boss bullock-driver’ [...] is a considerable man. Very often he is a steady one. A ‘boss bullocky’ is a man who owns his own team, and perhaps more than one.
1920		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Feb. 8/2: Before the boss scientists make fools of themselves and the public over the so-called ‘mystery”’.
1929		H.C. Witwer Yes Man’s Land 7: He’ll give me a letter which would get me past St. Peter, the boss gate-tender of ’em all!
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 4: In Chicago the rackets were run by a bunch of boss hoodlums.
1940		J.G. Brandon Gang War 127: If he isn’t the boss-pedlar for dope [...] then I’m the biggest dud that ever took a salary from the C.I.D.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 88: The boss pedlar [...] Dom and Alice belong to a mob in East Harlem.
1961		Metronome Apr. 32: The arrangements by Clayton are effortless and elegant — he has always been a boss arranger.
1977		P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 26: You mean he’s the boss fag [...] Pimp of all pimps, princess of the fuck boys.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 170: The Digger was a boss con.
1992		D. Pinckney High Cotton (1993) 33: Aunt Clara’s grandfather was a ‘boss mechanic,’ a carpenter, blacksmith, and wheelwright.
1999		P. Temple Black Tide (2012) [ebook] You find out a bit about the animal [...] whether he wants to be the boss horse.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com boss pimp Definition: a powerful pimp with a large collection of prostitutes. Example: Dolemite is boss pimp.
2012		M. Wilkerson ‘A Clean White Sun’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] Dicey [...] a blood-spattered nigger driving a boss crate with a brutally traumatized white girl in tow.
2018-20		T. Thorne (ed.) ‘Drill Slang Glossary’ at Forensic Linguistic Databank 🌐 Bozz - excellent.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 29: It’s some boss crib. As in sixteen rooms.

2. excellent, wonderful; also intensified as boss like hot sauce.

1862		‘Artemus Ward’ Artemus Ward, His Book 229: If he had bin a sensible man he’d have put the money in a boss railroad or a gas company, and left this magnificent continent to intelligent savages.
1876		F. Remington letter in Splete (1988) 12: We are to have a boss old fight here next Saturday.
1880		in N.E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 261: If a coast man wants to express the superlative degree he says ‘That is a “Boss” log or a “Boss suit”’.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Jan. 8/3: The cartoon went high; and the items were so warm / That even a D. T. man might stand up and say to all the word, [sic] ‘This is a boss paper.’.
1896		Riverina Recorder (Moulamein, NSW) 6 May 2/6: Our girls say they hada ‘boss’ time, whatever that is.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 198: I, who have taken no Precautions, am Strong as an Ox and feeling Boss.
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 140: It’s slightly different with a woman, especially one which is a boss good looker.
1949		L. Hughes Tambourines to Glory I vi: Stacked, solid – neat, all-reet – boss, baby!
a.1954		‘Mexicana Rose’ in D. Wepman et al. Life (1976) 40: I go for you, Sam, I think you’re boss.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 45: He’s got boss connections in the Filmore. He can turn stuff like this.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 36: Man, him and his chick did a boss job on that stud.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 9: He began his final laugh, his boss laugh, the kind that [...] turns into a monstro cough.
1971		in R.G. Reisner Graffiti 129: Tea is a groove and AMT is really boss.
1980		M. Thelwell Harder They Come 277: Mek him know say me coming back wid two baas song.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 44: That concert last night was boss!
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Boss (adj.) Very cool, most excellent.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 2: Considering that it’s nearly Christmas and that, it’s a boss fucking day.
2009		J. Joso Soothing Music for Stray Cats 70: I’d been to Soho loads of times [...] and managed to have a perfectly boss time.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 12: A jug-eared cat was hassling a boss blonde.

3. best; often as the boss, the best.

1879		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Nov. 11/3: ‘I’m the boss body-chopper in America; can hack, hew, pickle and brine more stiffs in less time and in better manner than any living man’.
1885		‘O. Henry’ letter in Rolling Stones (1913) 264: We have the boss trick here now. Have sold about ten boxes of cigars betting on it in the store.
1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 145: Mother Mandelbaum, the boss ‘fence’.
1897		O. Wister Lin McLean 134: Smith’s Palace — that’s the boss hotel here.
1904		G.D. Chase ‘Cape Cod Dialect’ in DN II:vi 424: boss, adj. Used to express high commendation, as ‘She’s the boss girl.’ ‘Come, do this for me, that’s the boss.’.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 4 July 15/1: The camel is the boss kicker of the universe. Hump’s hind leg will reach anywhere.
1920		H.C. Witwer No Base Like Home 22: He came near bein’ the boss ball player I’d ever seen.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 305: The Rags pulls the boss boner of a lifetime devoted to making boneheaded plays.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 57: As he was the boss scrapper next to the lately Duncan, why he was acknowledged champion of the world.
1968		Minneapolis Star (MN) 12 Sept. 69/4: Boss, theres no mistaking this word. It means you are far out [...] in other words, you’re a stone gas.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 355: Too much! Bloody, bloody . . . The fucking Boss, that’s all!
2009		(con. 1960s) J. Ellroy Blood’s a Rover 23: Crutch had a ’65 GTO the boss ride.

4. of criminals, very dangerous.

1885

Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Sept. 22/3: He never refused to go out on a hunt for boss thieves, nor to ante-up his little pile when he bucked the tiger and lost. And he was a rustler when out with the boys.

5. (US) arrogant, overbearing.

1899

W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 21: He was nobby and boss. He was dropping his r’s like a Southerner, and you know how much of a Southerner Johnny is – Johnstown, Pa.

6. dedicated, obsessed with.

1967		K. Kolb Getting Straight 39: In Ward A, man. That’s for the boss nuts, the real experts.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 124: He’s just a boss sucker for pretty boys.

7. important, meaningful.

2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 25: Like one of our own was going to break out and do something boss with their life.
2021		J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 5: ‘He’s muff-diving a three-hundred pound chick. That was a boss beef, back in ’51’.