boss vs chief mate

boss

noun
  • A person who oversees and directs the work of others; a supervisor. 

  • Wife. 

  • An enemy, often at the end of a level, that is particularly challenging and must be beaten in order to progress. 

  • A swelling, lump or protuberance in an animal, person or object. 

  • A convex protuberance in hammered work, especially the rounded projection in the centre of a shield. 

  • A wooden vessel for the mortar used in tiling or masonry, hung by a hook from the laths, or from the rounds of a ladder. 

  • A knob or projection, usually at the intersection of ribs in a vault. 

  • A person in charge of a business or company. 

  • A protrusion, frequently a cylinder of material that extends beyond a hole. 

  • A lump-like mass of rock, especially one projecting through a stratum of different rock. 

  • A target block, made of foam but historically made of hay bales, to which a target face is attached. 

  • A term of address to a man. 

  • A head or reservoir of water. 

  • A leader, the head of an organized group or team. 

  • The head of a political party in a given region or district. 

verb
  • To exercise authoritative control over; to tell (someone) what to do, often repeatedly. 

  • To decorate with bosses; to emboss. 

adj
  • Of excellent quality, first-rate. 

chief mate

noun
  • In the merchant navy, the officer who is second in command to the captain, and whose primary duties include managing the maintenance and upkeep of the vessel. 

How often have the words boss and chief mate occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )