Adjacent Words

cowboy definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a hired hand who tends cattle and performs other duties on horseback [syn: cowboy, cowpuncher, puncher, cowman, cattleman, cowpoke, cowhand, cowherd]
2: a performer who gives exhibitions of riding and roping and bulldogging [syn: cowboy, rodeo rider]
3: someone who is reckless or irresponsible (especially in driving vehicles)

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: 1623 1. one who tends cattle or horses; especially a usually mounted cattle-ranch hand 2. a rodeo performer 3. one having qualities (as recklessness, aggressiveness, or independence) popularly associated with cowboys: as a. a reckless driver b. a business or businessperson operating in an uncontrolled or unregulated manner II. intransitive verb Date: 1948 to work as a cowboy <cowboyed in Texas and Oklahoma>

Britannica Concise

Horseman skilled at handling cattle in the U.S. West. From c.1820, cowboys were employed in small numbers on Texas ranches, where they had learned the skills of the vaquero (Spanish: "cowboy"). After the Civil War, their numbers rapidly multiplied as cattle raising evolved into a lucrative industry throughout the W territories. Cowboys rounded up and branded the cattle, kept watch over the herd, and drove those ready for market to railroad towns. As the agricultural frontier moved west, the open range was transformed into farms, and by 1890 cowboys had been forced to settle on ranches. The romance of their image lived on in U.S. folklore and through movies and television.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 (fem. cowgirl) a person who herds and tends cattle, esp. in the western US. 2 this as a conventional figure in American folklore, esp. in films. 3 colloq. an unscrupulous or reckless person in business, esp. an unqualified one.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Cowboy Cow"boy` (-boi`), n. 1. A cattle herder; a drover; specifically, one of an adventurous class of herders and drovers on the plains of the Western and Southwestern United States. 2. One of the marauders who, in the Revolutionary War infested the neutral ground between the American and British lines, and committed depredations on the Americans.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(cowboys) 1. A cowboy is a male character in a western. ...cowboy films. N-COUNT 2. A cowboy is a man employed to look after cattle in North America, especially in former times. N-COUNT 3. You can refer to someone who runs a business as a cowboy if they run it dishonestly or are not experienced, skilful, or careful in their work. (BRIT) We don't want to look like a bunch of cowboys... N-COUNT: oft N n [disapproval]

Moby Thesaurus

broncobuster, buckaroo, caballero, cattleman, cavalier, cavalryman, chevalier, circus rider, cowgirl, cowhand, cowherd, cowman, cowpuncher, drover, equestrian, equestrienne, gaucho, goatherd, gooseboy, gooseherd, herder, herdsman, hogherd, horse soldier, horse wrangler, horseback rider, horsebacker, horseherd, horseman, horsewoman, jockey, knight, mounted policeman, pigman, postboy, postilion, puncher, rider, roughrider, sheepherder, sheepman, shepherd, shepherdess, steeplechaser, swanherd, swineherd, trick rider, vaquero, waddy, wrangler