Obs. Also bosse. [Of uncertain etymology: perh. only a sense of the prec. Compare, however, F. buse, buise conduit, though this alone could not give boss, unless through assimilation to the preceding.]
‘A water conduit, running out of a gor-bellied figure,’ Bailey, 1731: chiefly in ‘the Boss of Billingsgate.’
c. 1520. W. de Worde (title), Treatyse of a Galaunt, with the Maryage of the Fayre Pusell the Bosse of Byllyngesgate unto London Stone.
1539. Godly Sayng, in Furnivall, Ballads fr. MSS., I. 315. When the bosse of byllyngate wa[x]ythe so merye To daunce with a bagpype at scala celi, & the crose of chepeside dothe kepe a scole of fence.
1603. Stow, Surv. (1842), 160/1. Then have ye a boss of sweet water in the wall of the churchyard.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 85. Bosse Alley, so called of a Bosse of Spring-water.
1731. in Bailey.
