Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) God.

1887		Burlington Wkly Free Press (VT) 27 May 9/3: Then he took off his hat and said a prayer to the Big Man in the Sky.
1894		Hawaiian Star (HI) 15 Aug. 3/1: I do not believe in a big man up in the sky.
1907		R. Service ‘New Year’s Eve’ in Songs of a Sourdough 25: When the long, long day is over, and the Big Boss gives me my pay, / I hope that it won’t be hell-fire.
1927		Nichols & Tully Twenty Below Act III: ’Bove churches, ’bove everything, to the Big Boss in the clouds.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 438: Big Guy, the, God.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 27: Big Guy.—Properly God; a logical if not an elegant term.
1931		P. Thomson ‘Five Men and a Horse’ in Botkin Folk-Say 287: Take my place among th’ waddies, / Till th’ Big Boss calls th’ test.
1955		F.B. Vickers Mirage (1958) 158: Big Boss up top, him sore fella last night. He send rain down proper.
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 282: I prefer to feel that the Big Chief up there started us with Adam and Eve.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 44: May the Big Fellow in the Sky continue to watch over you.
1959		H. Ellison ‘May We Also Speak’ in Gentleman Junkie (1961) 34: It was the same expression I’d seen in paintings of the big man, Christ.
1962		T. Berger Reinhart in Love (1963) 99: In the eyes of the Big Boy upstairs we are all even as children.
1967		P. Thomas Down These Mean Streets (1970) 316: I quietly climbed down from my top bunk and bent my knees, feeling like for the first time in my life I was really going to get together with the Big Man.
1968		Letter in Edelman Dear America (1985) 31 Jan. 81: Hell, I’m only taking it one day at a time now – leaving it up to the Big Referee in the Sky.
1977		Time 26 Dec. [online archive] But if Flynt has truly become a devotee of the ‘Big Boy upstairs,’ all I can say is that there must be some truth in the saying ‘miracles never cease.’.
1982		P. Slabolepszy Sat. Night at the Palace (1985) 19: This could be it, my china. The ultimate Summons from that Great Cop in the Sky!!
1982		J. Davis Dreamers 120: God bless you, missus. Hey! Big boss! You up there! You listenin’?
1987		‘Joe Bob Briggs’ Joe Bob Goes to the Drive-In 5: In fact the Big Guy was a little p.o.ed.
1993		P. Slabolepszy ‘Mooi Street Moves’ Mooi Street (1994) 261: You must say your prayers. He is coming to get you – that Big Makulu Boss in the Sky.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 14 Nov. 14: Even the big guy in the sky had it in for me.
2000		M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 94: Most [rockers] would rather meet the big guy riding a glamorous OD, or some groovy bullet game gone wrong.
2002		M. Coles More Bible in Cockney 17: Listen to what I, the big boss, God of Israel, have to say.
2003		N.Y. Times 20 Oct. 🌐 ‘The big boy upstairs,’ Mr. [Jamie] Oliver said, referring to God. ‘He always does things with cooking that are interesting.’.
2018		J.-P. Jordan Joys of War 3: I have a few invisible friends. They had to look after me in shifts, I was that busy. I’m surprised they didn’t look for a pay rise with the big boss over me .

2. the senior figure in any hierarchy, e.g. running prisons, work gangs.

1929		Illinois Association for Criminal Justice et al. Illinois Crime Survey 862: [of a city mayor] [C]lose political associates of [Chicago] Mayor [William Hale] Thompson are busily denying the ‘big boss’ knows what’s going on.
1930		M. Fiaschetti You Gotta Be Rough 107: [T]here were fights among the mob for leadership in the scheme [i.e., the ‘Italian Lottery’]. [...] Several gents were ambitious to become the Big Boss.
1947		S.C. Adams Jr. personal doc. q. in Adams Ms in Gordon & Nemerov Lost Delta Found (2005) 249: While they worked to build the levees, the Negroes sang [...] when the work was going on. The big boss wouldn’t be there, but the walking boss would.
1967		J. Olsen Black is Best 190: [H]is ultimate allegiance is to the big boss and to the philosophy the big boss has spelled out in the three decades since Allah appeared to him.

3. (N.Z. prison) the oficial in charge of the prison.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 16/2: big boss, the n. the Site Manager (formerly the Superintendent), the official in charge of the prison.