Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To kiss.
- n. A kiss.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To smack; kiss; salute with the lips.
- To kiss.
- n. A smack; a kiss; a salute with the lips.
- n. A small vessel of from 50 to 70 tons burden, carrying two masts, and two sheds or cabins, one at each end, used in herring-fishing. The buss was common in the middle ages among the Venetians and other maritime communities. It was of considerable beam, like a galleon.
- n. See bus.
- n. A Scotch form of bush.
- To dress; get ready.
Wiktionary
- n. archaic A kiss.
- n. A herring buss, a type of shallow-keeled Dutch fishing boat used especially for herring fishing.
- v. transitive To kiss (either literally or figuratively).
- v. intransitive To kiss.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A kiss; a rude or playful kiss; a smack.
- v. To kiss; esp. to kiss with a smack, or rudely.
- n. (Naut.) A small strong vessel with two masts and two cabins; -- used in the herring fishery.
WordNet 3.0
- v. touch with the lips or press the lips (against someone's mouth or other body part) as an expression of love, greeting, etc.
- n. the act of caressing with the lips (or an instance thereof)
Etymologies
- Possibly blend of obsolete bass (akin to French baiser) and obsolete cuss (akin to Middle English kissen, to kiss; see kiss), or from Scottish Gaelic bus, lips, mouth; see puss2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Armed with listing sheets and info on comparable properties, these buyers filled two boldly titled buss eager to find a deal among the hundreds of foreclosed properties in Stockton, California.”
“I don't know how much I want to rely on Buss -- "buss" means "kiss," by the way -- because he doesn't seem sensitive enough to the problem of self-reporting.”
“She received me with a hug and a hearty "buss," as she called that salutation, and was evidently glad to see me.”
“She took an 'buss'd me right frontin' of all them jewlarkers, an 'airter she' uz gone I sot down an 'had a good cry.”
“Michael kissed Nelly's clear brow, and bestowed his usual "buss," as he called it, on granny's withered cheek; then shouldering his oilskin coat, he took his way towards the landing-place at the mouth of the harbour.”
“We will back the machine in which we make our daily peregrination from the top of Oxford-street to the city, against any 'buss' on the road, whether it be for the gaudiness of its exterior, the perfect simplicity of its interior, or the native coolness of its cad.”
Sketches by Boz, illustrative of everyday life and every-day people
“They had arrived in a "buss," which they had hired for the occasion.”
“MC Fumin asks on the song's opening set of bars; "buss" meaning to fire a gunshot, bust a move, or strike out, express yourself - find space and freedom.”
“He used to buss tables here when he was in high school.”
Fictionaut: FUCKFACE Ch 2: Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies... (Pt 1)
“And then the way Mack Brown threw the back up QB under the buss with his walking off the field interview was outrageous.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘buss’.
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Sounds
words that describe sound
atchoo, atishoo, babble, bam, bay, beep, blast, blather, bleat, bleep, blip, bong and 242 more...
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phrontistery - b
List of words from phrontistery.info
babeldom, baccate, bacchanal, bacciferous, bacciform, baccivorous, bacillicide, backstay, bactericide, baculiform, baculine, baculum and 582 more...
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the lascivious
orgiastic, nymph, breathless, writhe, calypso, Medusa, virago, sapphic, catamite, bisou, buss, succubus and 48 more...
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Herring
herring, pickled herring, red herring, bloater, herring-buss, herring-fishery, herring pond, herring-pond, whitebait, herringbone, herring-bone, buss and 65 more...
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The Kissing List
kiss, osculate, peck, butterfly, french, cataglottis, soul kiss, deep kiss, air kiss, Yankee dime, smooch, smack and 57 more...
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Phantom Islands
Errors of cartography.
frisland, sannikov land, hy-brasil, antillia, estotiland, pepys island, new south greenland, thompson island, bermeja, los jardines, ganges island, rica de oro and 33 more...
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Out to Sea
If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat.boat, ship, skiff, barge, canoe, catamaran, yacht, scow, lifeboat, launch, ketch, dory and 303 more...
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quality words
This is a mix of new words I've read studying for the GRE verbal and words I use normally. I also check back on these words if I don't use them often enough.
ineffable, septuagenarian, sesquipedalian, argyle, coalescence, profundity, vivisepulture, defenestrate, concatenate, usurp, diatribe, veracious and 461 more...
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Quaintnesses
For those who wish no words were ever forgotten
opprobrium, tedium, encomium, odium, ire, enmity, beguile, wile, brazen, popinjay, squit, hoity-toity and 1161 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1387 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 557 more...
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conglomeration
wherewithal, wan, zoonotic, zoonosis, nebulous, nefarious, nascent, quiescent, quell, undercroft, unwitting, unutterable and 658 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
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Lust
SEXy words
cocotte, strumpet, harlot, quean, concupiscence, orgiastic, succubus, odalisque, paramour, quim, tumid, tumescent and 68 more...
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Naughty Naughty
gyrate, torrid, by-blow, paramour, cuckold, salacious, philander, john thomas, uxorious, lithe, skivvies, coquet and 56 more...
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thigpensrevenge's Words
logorrhea, syzygy, anodyne, trencherman, matutinal, pleonasm, truckle, buss, osculation, virago, pukka, perspicacity and 29 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for buss.

milosrdenstvi "A small vessel of from fifty to seventy tons, often used in herring fishery." Mar 2, 2010
chained_bear "...there were occasions when Jack was tempted to ask his way of the many fishermen, English and Dutch, who haunted those perilous banks in their shallow-draught doggers, schuyts, busses, howkers, and even bugalets, and who made his progress all the more uneasy by lying across his hawse until the last possible minute or suddenly looming out of the darkness without a single light so that he had to throw all aback." --Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate, 285 Feb 9, 2008