English

Adjective

boss-eyed ‎(comparative more boss-eyed, superlative most boss-eyed)

1. Cross-eyed; squinting.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter XI, p. 187,

     " […] That aint dishonest—so you needn't look boss-eyed at me […] "

   • 1990, Harriet Harman, in Hansard, 7 December, 1990, [www.hansard-corpus.org]

     We should change our hours of sitting because the nation can not properly be represented by Members who become boss-eyed workaholics because they start at 9:30 in the morning and work through until after midnight.

   • 2005, Margaret Maclagan, "Regional and Social Variation" in Martin J. Ball (ed.), Clinical Sociolinguistics, John Wiley & Sons, p. 17,

     Dialectologists have produced dialect maps showing different usages in different areas. For example, in England, a map could show different terms for "cross-eyed:" cock-eyed in Northumberland, Westmoreland and parts of the Midlands, boss-eyed in South-East England and East Anglia, squint-eyed in Devon and parts of Somerset, and cross-eyed in Cheshire, Derbyshire and the Isle of Man […]

   • 2014, D. J. Roberts, This is the Modern World, Bloomington, IN: Author House, Chapter 1, p. 4,

     The reality, according to Susan, was that he was slurring his speech, occasionally spitting out the words in her ear, in an effort to be heard above the night club music, and starting to go slightly boss-eyed with the drink.

   • 2016, Stuart Maconie, "How Starman David Bowie fell to earth and ch-cha-changed an entire generation," Irish Mirror, 11 January, 2016,

     Suddenly it was OK to be weird or gay or geeky, a fey boy or a tough girl, a weed or a nerd, wonky-toothed or boss-eyed. Bowie was all these things and he was the coolest rock star ever.

2. Blind in one eye; having one injured eye.
   • 1906, Dion Clayton Calthrop, King Peter, London: Duckworth, p. 220,

     "'Thou shouldst a' married, Jock,' said I.

     "He gurgled in his cup and set it down; his good eye turned upon us, twinkling.

     "'And where's the maid would look on boss-eyed Jock?' he said.

   • 1915, D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, Chapter V, p. 130,

     "There's some roads a man has to be led, an' there's some roads a boss-eyed man can only follow wi' one eye shut. But this road can't be lost by a blind man nor a boss-eyed man nor a cripple and he's neither, thank God."