cattling

Noun

cattle pl (normally plural, singular cattle)

1. (plural, plural-normally) Domesticated animals of the species Bos taurus (cows, bulls, steers, oxen etc), and other hoofed mammals of the genus Bos.
   • Many cattle were suffering from a disease called BSE.
2. (plural, plural-normally) Certain other livestock, such as sheep, pigs or goats. Also rarely applied to horses.
   • Mr. Jos had hired a pair of horses for his open carriage, with which cattle, and the smart London vehicle, he made a very tolerable figure in the drives about Brussels.1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 29, in Vanity Fair, page 246
3. (derogatory, figuratively, plural, plural-normally) People who resemble domesticated bovine animals in behavior or destiny.
   • "Come, that will do," interrupted Joolby with an impatient growl; "talk, talk, talk—that's all it ever comes to with your kind of cattle. Do you still think that you are playing at charades, girl? […]"1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London

   Synonyms:

   beef, Bos, bovine, cattlebeast, cattlehead, neat, kine, sheeple

4. (English, countable, obsolete, plural, plural-normally, sometimes) chattel
   • goods and cattle
5. (plural, plural-normally, rare, uncountable) Used in restricted contexts to refer to the meat derived from cattle.
   • The temptation of a lone white man was too great for any gathering of myall-natives, and sheep-fat and cattle-steak seemed there for the spearing, so that a stockman always ran the risk of attack, especially if his shepherds interfered with the native women.a. 1964, Stephen Henry Roberts, The Squatting Age in Australia, 1835-1847, Melbourne University Press, published 1964, page 315

See all 6 meanings of cattle