Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Nonsense.
  • interjection Used to express disbelief or annoyance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cut a figure; make a show.
  • To make bosh or nonsense of; treat as bosh; spoil; humbug.
  • noun A kind of imitation butter; butterine: a trade-name in England.
  • noun Utter nonsense; absurd or foolish talk or opinions; stuff; trash.
  • noun A rough sketch; an outline; a figure.
  • noun See boshes.
  • noun A trough in which bloomery tools (or, in copper-smelting, hot ingots) are cooled.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One of the sloping sides of the lower part of a blast furnace; also, one of the hollow iron or brick sides of the bed of a puddling or boiling furnace.
  • noun The lower part of a blast furnace, which slopes inward, or the widest space at the top of this part.
  • noun In forging and smelting, a trough in which tools and ingots are cooled.
  • noun colloq. Empty talk; contemptible nonsense; trash; humbug.
  • noun obsolete Figure; outline; show.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The lower part of a blast furnace, between the hearth and the stack.
  • noun UK, slang, archaic A figure.
  • interjection UK An expression of speedy and satisfactory completion of a simple or straightforward task.
  • noun chiefly UK Nonsense.
  • interjection chiefly UK An expression of disbelief or annoyance.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun pretentious or silly talk or writing

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Turkish boş, empty.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From German

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Unknown.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Turkish boş ("empty, unoccupied"). Entered into popular usage in English from the novels of James Justinian Morier.

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Examples

  • What you call bosh is the only thing men dare die for.

    The Worst Journey in the World Antarctic 1910-1913 Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922

  • What you call bosh is the only thing men dare die for.

    Act III 1903

  • What you call bosh is the only thing men dare die for.

    Man and Superman George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • Well the reasons I give him respect is because before the year, I called bosh out as the weak link and said the heat would never win a title unless he gives up something and focus on defense, his biggest weakness.

    SI.com 2011

  • Well the reasons I give him respect is because before the year, I called bosh out as the weak link and said the heat would never win a title unless he gives up something and focus on defense, his biggest weakness.

    SI.com 2011

  • Owen would be as tender with him as a woman, allowing the young lad's arm round his body, listening to words which the outer world would have called bosh -- and have derided as girlish.

    Castle Richmond Anthony Trollope 1848

  • Too funny! ... noteTOself: Do Your Taxes hahaha the first 3 are gold: D "might be a bad time to call bosh" rofl ...

    blogTO 2009

  • His brother James bluntly told him that this seemed "very like carrying a certain combustible material to Newcastle," and added, "Allow me to say that your remark about your not being equal to the job is nothing less than 'bosh'."

    'The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: 2007

  • And some of it was the kind of bosh you can expect from an economist, as Mr. Summers is.

    Beyond the Gender Issue, What's the Deal at Harvard? 2005

  • It was the Boer way of saying "bosh" to our ill-timed boast that the war was over.

    With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back Edward P. Lowry

Comments

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  • Now, now, cool your ingots.

    August 11, 2021