Definition of "bosun" [bosun]

• Variant of boatswain. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A bosun is a person who gives -- who blows a whistle to give orders to the other sailors."
• "Her father was, as she always put it, "in the King's Navy," and he had been "bosun" to a ship's"
• ""Nancy -- my bosun; ain't he a peach?" was the answer I got, and from the mate's manner of enunciation I was quite aware that "Nancy" had been used derisively."