Word.ws English Dictionary

buckaroo

Syllables: buck·a·rooUK/ˌbʌkəˈɹuː//ˌbʌkəˈɹu/

buckaroo noun: a cowboy; specifically, a working cowboy who generally does not participate in rodeos.

Noun (1)

buckaroo (plural buckaroos)

  1. (US, also, attributive) A cowboy; specifically, a working cowboy who generally does not participate in rodeos.
    • No thanks, cowboy. If I was to let every rodeo hand I pulled a bull off of buy me liquor, I'd have been an alcoholic long ago. Pullin' bulls off of you buckaroos is just my job. So save your money for your next entry fee, cowboy.2005 September 2, Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana, 00:51:25 from the start, in Brokeback Mountain, Universal City, Calif.: Focus Features, →OCLC
  2. (US, broadly) One who adopts a distinctive style of cowboy attire and heritage.
    • Many cowboy poets have a buckaroo look and feel about them.
  3. (US, broadly) A style of cowboy boot with a high heel tapered at the back.
  4. (US, Western, figuratively) A headstrong, reckless person; a hothead.
    • Don’t run in looking for a fight like some kind of buckaroo.

Noun (2)

buckaroo (plural buckaroos)

  1. (US, slang) Synonym of buck (“a dollar”).
    • That’ll be twenty buckaroos, buddy.
    • I've got five buckeroos on this one, Sarge. Is there such a thing as an enlisted man in the Navy wearing an Army uniform? I say no!1944 March 18, Liberty

Proper noun capitalized: Buckaroo

Buckaroo

  1. A locality in the Mid-Western council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.

Synonyms of buckaroo

Forms of buckaroo

pluralbuckaroos
alternative formbuckayro
alternative formbuckeroo

Origin of buckaroo

Modified from Spanish vaquero (“cowboy”), with the spelling influenced by buck (“(noun) male antelope, deer, etc.; adventurous or high-spirited young man; (verb) of a horse, etc.: to leap upward arching its back, coming down with head low and forelegs stiff, forcefully kicking its hind legs upward”). Doublet of vaquero. cognates * Early Medieval Latin vaccārius (“cowherd”) * French vacher * Late Latin baccalārius (“landless serf; cowherd (?)”) (Merovingian)

Probably a fanciful elaboration of buck, influenced by buckaroo (etymology 1).

Words formed from buckaroo

Words that rhyme with buckaroo

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about buckaroo

What does buckaroo mean?
Buckaroo means a cowboy; specifically, a working cowboy who generally does not participate in rodeos.
What part of speech is buckaroo?
Buckaroo can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce buckaroo?
Buckaroo is pronounced /ˌbʌkəˈɹuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of buckaroo?
The plural of buckaroo is buckaroos.

Words near buckaroo in the dictionary

  1. Buckalew
  2. Buckalews
  3. Buckallew
  4. buckarette
  5. buckarettes
  6. buckaroo
  7. buckaroonie
  8. buckaroonies
  9. buckaroos
  10. buckayro
  11. buckayros

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: buckaroo (page history and authors); Buckaroo (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-buckaroo.wav, En-au-buckaroo.ogg.

Cite this entry: “buckaroo.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/buckaroo. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.