Word.ws English Dictionary

teach who's boss

teach who's 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 teach who's boss

third-person singular presentteaches who's boss
present participleteaching who's boss
past participletaught who's boss
pasttaught who's boss

Questions about teach who's boss

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

Words near teach who's boss in the dictionary

  1. teach school
  2. teach someone a lesson
  3. teach someone who's the boss
  4. teach the controversy
  5. teach to the test
  6. teach who's boss
  7. teach who's the boss
  8. teach-in
  9. teach-ins
  10. teach-out
  11. teach-outs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: teach who's 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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Cite this entry: “teach who's boss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/teach_who%27s_boss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.