subs. (common).—Nonsense; rubbish; STUFF (q.v.); ROT (q.v.)—anything beneath contempt. [MURRAY: the word became current in England from its frequent occurrence in Morier’s Persian novels, Ayesha (1834), etc., most of them extremely popular productions. Its source has been suggested in the Turkish bosh lakerdi, ‘empty talk.’]
1834. MORIER, Ayesha, I., 219. This firman is BOSH—nothing.
1857. C. KINGSLEY, Two Years Ago, x. I always like to read old Darwin’s Loves of the Plants, BOSH as it is in a scientific point of view.
1880. Punch, 10 Jan., 9, 2.
| ‘Prophet,’ said I ‘of things evil! “Things are going to the devil” | |
| Is the formula of fogies, I have heard that BOSH before.’ |
Verb. (colloquial).—To humbug; to spoil; to mar.
1870. Macmillan’s Magazine, XXI., 71. You BOSH his joke [a man’s] by refusing to laugh at it; you BOSH his chance of sleep by playing on the cornet all night in the room next to him.
1883. M. E. BRADDON, The Golden Calf, xiv. ‘And wouldn’t he make a jolly schoolmaster?’ exclaimed Reginald. ‘Boys would get on capitally with, Jardine. They’d never try to BOSH him.’
Intj.—Nonsense! Rubbish? All my eye!
1853. DICKENS, Bleak House, xxi. BOSH! It’s all correct.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, October 30, 3, 1. ‘You always learn in front of the looking-glass, do you not, Mr. Brandram?’—‘BOSH!’ was the laughing reply.
