Obs. [Origin unknown: perhaps a corruption of F. ébauche outline, rough-hewn figure.] An outline, rough sketch. Hence (?) To cut a bosh: to make a figure, to make an imposing, swaggering appearance.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, xlvi. 245. Who has handsomer tie-wigs, or more fashionable cloaths, or cuts a bolder bosh than Tom Paroquet? Ibid., 247. Laughing at everybody … that does not cut as bold a bosh as they do.
1751. Student, II. 287. A man who has learned but the bosh of an argument, that has only seen the shadow of a syllogism.
