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Boss vs Couch - What's the difference?

boss | couch |

In transitive terms the difference between boss and couch

is that boss is to exercise authoritative control over; to lord over; to boss around; to tell (someone) what to do, often repeatedly while couch is to lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.

As an adjective boss

is of excellent quality, first-rate.

boss

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) bos, bose, boce, from (etyl) .

Noun

(es)
  • A swelling, lump or protuberance in an animal, person or object.
  • (geology) A lump-like mass of rock, especially one projecting through a stratum of different rock.
  • A convex protuberance in hammered work, especially the rounded projection in the centre of a shield.
  • (mechanics) A protrusion, frequently a cylinder of material that extends beyond a hole.
  • (architecture) A knob or projection, usually at the intersection of ribs in a vault.
  • (archery) the target block, made of foam but historically made of hay bales, to which a target face is attached.
  • A wooden vessel for the mortar used in tiling or masonry, hung by a hook from the laths, or from the rounds of a ladder.
    • (Gwilt)
  • A head or reservoir of water.
    • Derived terms
    * bossless * bosslike * emboss

    Verb

    (es)
  • To decorate with bosses; to emboss.

    • Etymology 2

    Apparently a corruption of (bass).

    Noun

    (es)
  • (obsolete) A hassock or small seat, especially made from a bundle of straw.
  • * 1916 , , Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, 36:
    • All were waiting : uncle Charles, who sat far away in the shadow of the window, Dante and Mr Casey, who sat in the easy chairs at either side of the hearth, Stephen, seated on a chair between them, his feet resting on a toasting boss .
    Synonyms
    * (hassock or footrest): footrest, hassock

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) baas, from (etyl) . Originally a term of respect used to address an older relative, later, in , it began to mean a person in charge who is not a master.

    Noun

    (es)
  • A person who oversees and directs the work of others; a supervisor.
  • A person in charge of a business or company.
    • Chat turned to whisper when the boss entered the conference room.
    My boss complains that I'm always late to work.
  • A leader, the head of an organized group or team.
    • They named him boss because he had good leadership skills.
  • The head of a political party in a given region or district.
    • He is the Republican boss in Kentucky.
  • (informal) A term of address to a man.
    • Yes, boss .
  • (video games) An enemy, often at the end of a level, that is particularly challenging and must be beaten in order to progress.
  • (humorous) Wife.
    • There's no olive oil, will sunflower oil do? — I'll have to run that by the boss .
    Synonyms
    * (person in charge of a business or company): employer * (person who oversees and directs the work of others): line manager, manager, supervisor * (leader of an organized group or team): head, leader * (head of a political party in a given region or district): leader * : gov/guv (UK), guvnor (UK), mate (UK) * See also
    Derived terms
    * boss battle * boss fight * miniboss * final boss * show someone who's boss * you're the boss

    Verb

    (es)
  • To exercise authoritative control over; to lord over; to boss around; to tell (someone) what to do, often repeatedly.
  • * 1931 , Robert L. May, Rudolph'', ''The Red-Nosed Reindeer , Montgomery Ward (publisher):
    • By YOU last night’s journey was actually bossed / Without you, I’m certain, we’d all have been lost.
  • * 1932 , Lorine Pruette, The Parent and the Happy Child , page 76
    • His sisters bossed him and spoiled him. All their lives he was to go on being their little brother, who could do no wrong, because he was the baby; [...]
  • * 1967 , Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, The purloined paperweight , page 90
    • She bossed him, and he's never gotten over it. She still orders him around, and instead of telling her to go soak her head, he just says 'Yes, ma'am' as weak as a newborn jellyfish [...]
  • * 1980 , Jean Toomer The wayward and the seeking: a collection of writings by Jean Toomer , page 40
    • For if, on the one hand, I bossed him and showed him what to do and how to do it, [...]
    Derived terms
    * boss about, boss around

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (slang, American, Liverpool) Of excellent quality, first-rate.
    • ''Don't you think surfing's boss ?

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    couch

    English

    (wikipedia couch)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) (m), from the verb .

    Noun

    (es)
  • An item of furniture for the comfortable seating of more than one person.
  • Bed, resting-place.
  • * (seeCites)
  • * Shakespeare
    • Gentle sleep why liest thou with the vile / In loathsome beds, and leavest the kingly couch ?
  • * Bryant
    • Like one that wraps the drapery of his couch / About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The half-dozen pieces […] were painted white and carved with festoons of flowers, birds and cupids. […]  The bed was the most extravagant piece.  Its graceful cane halftester rose high towards the cornice and was so festooned in carved white wood that the effect was positively insecure, as if the great couch were trimmed with icing sugar.}}
  • A mass of steeped barley spread upon a floor to germinate, in malting; or the floor occupied by the barley.
  • (art, painting and gilding)  A preliminary layer, as of colour or size.
    • Synonyms
    * (item of furniture) davenport, divan, settee, sofa
    Derived terms
    * couch doctor * couch surfing * uncouched * fly couch
    Descendants
    * German: (l)
    See also
    * armchair * love seat * chesterfield

    Verb

    (es)
  • To lie down; to recline (upon a couch or other place of repose).
  • * (rfdate) (Shakespeare)
    • Where souls do couch on flowers, we'll hand in hand.
  • * (rfdate) (Shakespeare)
    • If I court moe women, you'll couch with moe men.
  • * {{quote-video
    • , year = 1994 , title = (Reality Bites) , people = (Winona Ryder) , role = Lelaina Pierce , passage = All you do around here, Troy, is eat and couch and fondle the remote control. }}
  • To lie down for concealment; to hide; to be concealed; to be included or involved darkly.
  • * (rfdate) Shakespeare
    • We'll couch in the castle ditch, till we see the light of our fairies.
  • * (rfdate) I. Taylor
    • the half-hidden, hallf-revealed wonders, that yet couch beneath the words of the Scripture
  • To bend the body, as in reverence, pain, labor, etc.; to stoop; to crouch.
  • * (rfdate) (Spenser)
    • an aged squire that seemed to couch under his shield three-square
  • To lay something upon a bed or other resting place.
  • * (rfdate) (Shakespeare)
    • Where unbruised youth, with unstuffed brain, / Does couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign.
  • To arrange or dispose as if in a bed.
  • * (rfdate) T. Burnet
    • The waters couch themselves as may be to the centre of this globe, in a spherical convexity.
  • To lay or deposit in a bed or layer; to bed.
  • * (rfdate) (Francis Bacon)
    • It is at this day in use at Gaza, to couch potsherds, or vessels of earth, in their walls.
  • (paper-making) To transfer (e.g. sheets of partly dried pulp) from the wire mould to a felt blanket for further drying.
  • (medicine) To treat by pushing down or displacing the opaque lens with a needle.
    • to couch a cataract
  • To lower (a spear or lance) to the position of attack.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • He stooped his head, and couched his spear , / And spurred his steed to full career.
    Synonyms
    * : lie down, recline

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) couchier

    Verb

    (es)
  • To phrase in a particular style, to use specific wording for.
    • He couched it as a request, but it was an order.
  • * (rfdate) (Blackwood Magazine)
    • I had received a letter from Flora couched in rather cool terms.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=June 26 , author=Genevieve Koski , title=Music: Reviews: Justin Bieber: Believe , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=More significantly, rigid deference to Bieber’s still-young core fan base keeps things resolutely PG, with any acknowledgement of sex either couched in vague “touch your body” workarounds or downgraded to desirous hand-holding and eye-gazing.}}
  • (archaic) To conceal; to hide
  • * 1662 Thomas Salusbury, Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems , Dialogue 2:
    • You have overlooked a fallacy couched in the experiment of the stick.
    Synonyms
    * (phrase in a particular style) explain, express, phrase, term, word

    Etymology 3

    From quitch, from (etyl) cwice, from (etyl) kweke.

    Noun

    (-)
  • couch grass, a species of persistent grass, Elymus repens , usually considered a weed.
    • Synonyms
    * (Elymus repens) twitch, , quackgrass, scutch grass, witchgrass
    See also
    * (Elymus repens)