"boss around" meaning in All languages combined

See boss around on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: bosses around [present, singular, third-person], bossing around [participle, present], bossed around [participle, past], bossed around [past]
Etymology: * From boss and around. Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} boss around (third-person singular simple present bosses around, present participle bossing around, simple past and past participle bossed around)
  1. (transitive) To act in a bossy manner with another person, ordering them to do things, whether or not one is actually their superior. Tags: transitive Synonyms: boss about Translations (to act in a bossy manner): командоря (komandorja) (Bulgarian), komennella (Finnish), mener à la baguette (French), herumkommandieren (German), mandonear (Spanish), señorear (Spanish)

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "* From boss and around.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bosses around",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bossing around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bossed around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bossed around",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "boss around (third-person singular simple present bosses around, present participle bossing around, simple past and past participle bossed around)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"around\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with German translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              28
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2007 March 16, Capcom Production Studio 4, quoting Phoenix, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, Europe: Capcom, →OCLC, Nintendo DS, scene: Part 3: Investigation, Plaza, level/area: Turnabout Big Top:",
          "text": "Phoenix: Being bossed around by a woman... I know how you feel.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              89,
              100
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2013, Ryk E. Spoor, Spheres of Influence:",
          "text": "One big difference between me and my literary original; I haven't the faintest desire to boss around planetsful of people.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act in a bossy manner with another person, ordering them to do things, whether or not one is actually their superior."
      ],
      "id": "en-boss_around-en-verb-Ak3RI3mI",
      "links": [
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "bossy",
          "bossy"
        ],
        [
          "manner",
          "manner"
        ],
        [
          "ordering",
          "ordering"
        ],
        [
          "superior",
          "superior"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To act in a bossy manner with another person, ordering them to do things, whether or not one is actually their superior."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "boss about"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "bg",
          "lang": "Bulgarian",
          "lang_code": "bg",
          "roman": "komandorja",
          "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
          "word": "командоря"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
          "word": "komennella"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "lang_code": "fr",
          "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
          "word": "mener à la baguette"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
          "word": "herumkommandieren"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
          "word": "mandonear"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
          "word": "señorear"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "boss around"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "* From boss and around.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bosses around",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bossing around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bossed around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bossed around",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "boss around (third-person singular simple present bosses around, present participle bossing around, simple past and past participle bossed around)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrasal verbs",
        "English phrasal verbs formed with \"around\"",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Terms with German translations",
        "Terms with Spanish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              28
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2007 March 16, Capcom Production Studio 4, quoting Phoenix, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice for All, Europe: Capcom, →OCLC, Nintendo DS, scene: Part 3: Investigation, Plaza, level/area: Turnabout Big Top:",
          "text": "Phoenix: Being bossed around by a woman... I know how you feel.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              89,
              100
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2013, Ryk E. Spoor, Spheres of Influence:",
          "text": "One big difference between me and my literary original; I haven't the faintest desire to boss around planetsful of people.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To act in a bossy manner with another person, ordering them to do things, whether or not one is actually their superior."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "act",
          "act"
        ],
        [
          "bossy",
          "bossy"
        ],
        [
          "manner",
          "manner"
        ],
        [
          "ordering",
          "ordering"
        ],
        [
          "superior",
          "superior"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To act in a bossy manner with another person, ordering them to do things, whether or not one is actually their superior."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "boss about"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "bg",
      "lang": "Bulgarian",
      "lang_code": "bg",
      "roman": "komandorja",
      "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
      "word": "командоря"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
      "word": "komennella"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "lang_code": "fr",
      "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
      "word": "mener à la baguette"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
      "word": "herumkommandieren"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
      "word": "mandonear"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "to act in a bossy manner",
      "word": "señorear"
    }
  ],
  "word": "boss around"
}

Download raw JSONL data for boss around meaning in All languages combined (2.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (e2469cc and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.