What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Boss eyed’?
This first appears in the 19th century. It is defined in John Camden Hotten’s A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant and Vulgar Words, 1869 as:
“Boss-eyed - a person with one eye, or rather with one eye injured”.
The 1887 edition of Notes and Queries says - “To boss is schoolboy slang for ‘to miss’.”