Word.ws English Dictionary

show who's the boss

show who's the boss is the alternative form of show who's boss.

Meaning of show who's boss

Verb

show who's boss (third-person singular simple present shows who's boss, present participle showing who's boss, simple past showed who's boss, past participle shown who's boss)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To demonstrate oneself to be dominant; to show that one has the upper hand.
    • When children are young, spanking is a familiar device to show who's boss.1975, Dorothy Corkille Briggs, Your Child's Self-esteem: The Key to Life, →ISBN, page 234
  2. (idiomatic, transitive) To demonstrate that one is dominant over or superior to someone; to establish that one has control of some device or intractable object.
    • "Bimeby I show yoh who's boss. I make yoh cry for Ramon be good to yoh!"1916, B. M. Bower, chapter 21, in The Heritage of the Sioux

Forms of show who's the boss

third-person singular presentshows who's the boss
present participleshowing who's the boss
pastshowed who's the boss
past participleshown who's the boss

Questions about show who's the boss

What is show who's the boss the alternative form of?
Show who's the boss is the alternative form of show who's boss.

Words near show who's the boss in the dictionary

  1. show trials
  2. show tune
  3. show tunes
  4. show up
  5. show who's boss
  6. show who's the boss
  7. show willing
  8. show window
  9. show windows
  10. show'd
  11. show, don't tell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: show who's the boss (page history and authors); show who's boss (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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