Boss - Definition and Overview

The word boss includes several meanings:

• For a projection (as in the ceilings of cathedrals where arches intersect), often decorated, e.g., variously carved and painted with religious images and local coats of arms, see architecture.
• Primarily in American English, any of various senses derived from the Dutch term "baas" (meaning "master"):
  • In casual usage regarding business organizations:
    • For the head of a company, see CEO or president, and chair.
    • For one's immediate supervisor (or the lowest one common to the chains of command of all those in the discussion), see manager or foreman.
  • (Boss is also a jocular or disparaging nickname for a spouse of either sex, as in "I'll have to find out what the boss thinks".)
  • For a dominant person (whether a public official or not) in a political party, or subdivision of one, see political boss.
  • For the leader of an independent organized crime "family", see crime boss.
  • For a particularly powerful enemy in a video game, whose defeat would complete a level, episode, or game, see boss (video games).
  • As to people named and/or called Boss:
    • For the boss of the 19^th-century New York City Democratic political machine called Tammany Hall, see "Boss" Tweed.
    • For the American singer and songwriter nicknamed "The Boss", see Bruce Springsteen.
  • As for items described as "Boss", an adjective, describing item/event/noun in a positive manner. "That car is really boss", or "Wow, it's going to be a boss party"
• Boss (soft drink) is a coffee and coffe flavored beverage marketed in Japan by Suntory.