underboss

noun

un·​der·​boss ˈən-dər-ˌbȯs How to pronounce underboss (audio)
: a boss ranking next below the head of a branch of a crime syndicate

Examples of underboss in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Gravano rose to the rank of underboss under Gotti, but then became a government witness in 1991. Joe Otterson, Variety, 6 Dec. 2024 But when he’s detained at the airport, his underboss, Vince, attends in his place. Sean T. Collins, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2024 By the end of the episode, back in the present day, Sofia calmly waits until her family is asleep in the Carmine mansion, and then pipes carbon monoxide throughout the house, gassing them all to death — save her young niece and the Falcone underboss, Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly). Adam B. Vary, Variety, 14 Oct. 2024 Listen to this article An elderly mafia underboss charged in a union extortion scheme caught a break because of his age when a Brooklyn judge sentenced him to 15 months in prison Monday. John Annese, New York Daily News, 22 Jan. 2024 The head of the party is the don, and below him sit the underbosses, or the Standing Committee. Cai Xia, Foreign Affairs, 6 Sep. 2022 Twenty minutes earlier, at 5 p.m., Arai had shot to death his underboss, Hideyuki Eiri, aged 54, at the gang office and then driven back to his palatial house. Jake Adelstein, Rolling Stone, 17 Oct. 2023 Franzese grew up as the son of the underboss of New York’s Colombo crime family and by his mid-30s became one of the biggest mafia bosses, ranking No. 18 in Fortune magazine’s list of the 50 most wealthy and powerful Mafia bosses in America in the mid-1980s. Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 June 2023 Baldwin's Senate testimony chronicled the numerous plans to kill a Team A underboss with explosives. Ray Sanchez, CNN, 9 Apr. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of underboss was in 1942

Dictionary Entries Near underboss

Cite this Entry

“Underboss.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/underboss. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

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