boss around

1. Tell someone what to do, give orders. For example, David complained that his older sister was always bossing him around. The use of boss in the sense of “to dominate” dates from the mid-1800s, and around was added a few decades later.

Example Sentences

“You can’t boss around the dead,” as the soothsayer tried to explain afterward, but Lady Constance was convinced the fortune-teller was a fraud, and spoke harshly about the incident for weeks afterward.

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It came as the government wrote to bosses around the country advising them to have their contingency plans written down on paper, in case they lose access to their computers in a hack.

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Labour's vast, not so new ranks, are not willing to be bossed around.

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"None of us are people that will be bossed around. So if you put five of those people together all the time and then they start annoying each other... eventually there's going to be eruptions."

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Samuel studies Romy until he picks up that his boss wants to be bossed around.

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