Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) officious, domineering.

[1654		New Brawle 1: Jack being jealous of Doll his bozzy Wife, / Like Dogge and Catt, they always live at strife].
1882		A. Trumble Mysteries of N.Y. 12: Felicia possessed the ‘bossy’ qualities, and her husband was constructed on the blanc mange order of architecture.
1907		J.W. Carr ‘Word-List from Hampstead, N.H.’ in DN III iii 182: bossy, adj. Overbearing, domineering.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 262: Once they quarrelled, and he raged that she was as ‘bossy’ as his wife.
1930		W.R. Burnett Iron Man 287: Regan was bossy and pig-headed and hard to get along with.
1940		R. Chandler Farewell, My Lovely (1949) 166: The kind of bossy knock that makes you want to open the door, emit the succulent raspberry and slam it again.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 201: Miss Clouston, the new woman I’d got to look after him, knew her job, even if she was a bit bossy.
1963		B. Naughton Alfie I ii: You’re not only cooey, but in a way you’re more bossified.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 178: Bossy little bastard. Who does he think he’s tellin’ not to talk at all?
1974		D. Goines Swamp Man 25: Old people had a bad habit of getting bossy in their old age.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 334: He’d been held captive [...] by two bossy prostitutes.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 117: Bossy bitch.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 49: She was bossy, she was demure, she was effusive.