In engineering, a boss is a protruding feature on a workpiece.
A common use for a boss is to locate one object within a pocket or hole of another object. For instance, some motors use a precisely machined boss on the front face to locate it on the mating part.
The term 'boss' when used in engineering can also relate to a finishing edge around (usually) a circular opening that allows the opening to locate onto, or within another opening thus locating or joining two items together with a view to the location or joining being temporary or semi-permanent. A common everyday example of a boss is the housing of the rotation spindle in a washing machine drum, or on a cylinder lawn mower at the end of the cutting blade cylinder which may house a bearing set to allow the cylinder to rotate through one plane, but held firm in another plane.
A boss can also be a brass eyelet on a sail. It is a generic term to describe an item designed to facilitate the use with, within, on or around another item whereby one cannot operate properly without the other.
The word 'boss' is also often used to describe the end of a shaft on a boat to which a propeller might attach.
Boss A projection or an enlarged section of a casting through which a hole may be machine.
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Famous quotes containing the word boss:
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)