Other forms: bossier; bossily; bossiest
Someone who's bossy has a tendency to order other people around. Your bossy friend might tell you what clothes you should wear on your date as well as which restaurant you ought to eat at.
Bossy people enjoy telling you what to do. Your bossy roommate might instruct you to clean the kitchen immediately, and a bossy kid could happily spend an afternoon ordering his babysitter to push him on a swing. While the 16th century meaning was "swelling and rounded, decorated with buttons," by the late 1800s bossy meant "domineering," from the Dutch baas, or "master." It's also a popular name for a cow, from the Latin bos, "cow."