Word.ws English Dictionary

cow

/kaʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/kuː/

cow noun: an adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.

cow: an adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved
Image: Kim Hansen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

cow (countable and uncountable, plural cows or cattle or (archaic or dialectal) kye or kine)

  1. (strictly) An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.
    • The whole herd is out to pasture right now — the cows, calves, and heifers are out back, and the bulls are down by the creek.
  2. (broadly, informal) Any member of the species Bos taurus that is not of a bucking breed or fighting breed, regardless of sex or age, including steers and calves.
    • We saw lots of cows at the farm show, including some surprisingly gigantic bulls.
    Synonyms:
    cattle beast
  3. (uncommon, uncountable) Beef: the meat of cattle as food.
    • The only meat I eat is cow.
  4. (uncommon) Any bovines or bovids generally, including yaks, buffalo, etc.
  5. A female member of other large species of mammal, including the bovines, moose, whales, seals, hippos, rhinos, manatees, and elephants.
  6. (Ireland, UK, derogatory, informal) A woman considered unpleasant in some way, particularly one considered nasty, stupid, fat, lazy, or difficult.
    • […] the worst insult to a woman, either in London or Paris, is "cow"; a name which might even be a compliment, for cows are among the most likeable of animals.1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXXII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC
    • Greville Preston: You've been set up, you silly cow. Now, don't let me hear any more about this unless you have absolute stand-up-in-court proof it's kosher...
      Mattie Storin: Pig.1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 2
    Synonyms:
    bitch, bastard
  7. A chock: a wedge or brake used to stop a machine or car.
  8. (US, slang) A third-year cadet at West Point.
    • Colonel Red Reeder, West Point Second Classman
      An assistant manager, wearing the stripes of a cadet corporal, walked up to Coach Smith. Clint knew him, a Cow from B-l. What had he done to become so outstanding that the Tacs made him a corporal?
    • When I was a cow (junior) at West Point, I dated a plebe (freshman), which is considered fraternization in the cadet realm.2023, James E Parco, David A Levy, Daphne DePorres, Attitudes Aren't Free: A Call to Action, page 242
  9. (slang) A fish that is very large for its species, such as a large striped bass or large bluefin tuna.

Verb

cow (third-person singular simple present cows, present participle cowing, simple past and past participle cowed)

  1. (transitive, chiefly passive voice) To intimidate; to daunt the spirits or courage of.
    • Con artists are not cowed by the law.
    • To vanquish a people already cowed.1711 September 21 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “MONDAY, September 11, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 167; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator...

Noun (2)

cow (plural cows)

  1. (UK, dialectal) A chimney cowl.
    • Who could live to gaze from day to day on bricks and slates, who had once felt the influence of a scene like this? Who could continue to exist, where there are no cows but the cows on the chimneypots; nothing redolent of Pan but pan-tiles; […]1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

Noun (3)

cow (plural cows)

  1. LFBOT: Synonym of luminous fast blue optical transient.
    Synonyms:
    cow-class event, cow event, cow-like event, LFBOT, cow class, luminous fast blue optical transient

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Cow

Cow (countable and uncountable, plural Cows)

  1. A surname
  2. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Cow Creek.
  3. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Cow Island.
  4. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Cow Lake.
  5. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Cow Mountain.

Noun (4) capitalized: COW

COW (countable and uncountable, plural COWs)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym, uncountable) Acronym of copy-on-write.
  2. (abbreviation, acronym, uncountable) Acronym of chief of watch.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: CoW

CoW

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of C of W.

Noun (5) capitalized: CoW

CoW (plural CoWs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of clerk of works.

cow meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

cow in Hindi

adult female of species Bos taurus
गाय gāy, गो go, गऊ gaū, बकर bakar
any domestic bovine regardless of sex or age
गोरू gorū, गाय gāy, गो go, गऊ gaū, बकर bakar

cow in Tamil

adult female of species Bos taurus
பசு pacu
any domestic bovine regardless of sex or age
மாடு māṭu

cow in Marathi

adult female of species Bos taurus
गाय gāy

cow in Urdu

adult female of species Bos taurus
گائے gāe, گو go, گَئُو gaū, بَقَر baqar
More languagesFewer languages
cow in Bengali
গাই gai, গরু goru
cow in Telugu
ఆవు āvu, గోవు gōvu
cow in Malayalam
പശു paśu
cow in Kannada
ಹಸು hasu, ದನ dana
cow in Gujarati
ગાય gāya
cow in Sanskrit
धेनु dhenu, गो go, अघ्न्या aghnyā
cow in Sinhala
දෙන dena
cow in Assamese
গাইগৰু gaigoru, গৰু goru
cow in Nepali
गाई gāī
cow in Pashto
غوا ġwā
cow in Tagalog
baka
cow in Arabic
بَقَرَة baqara, بقرة baʔara, بْقَرَة bgərə, بَقَر baqar
cow in Malay
lembu betina, sapi betina, lembu
cow in Indonesian
sapi, lembu
cow in Persian
مادِهگاو mâde-gâv, گاو gâv, گُو gow, گا gâ
cow in Thai
วัว wuua, โค koo
cow in Vietnamese
bò cái, bò, cái
cow in Myanmar
နွားမ nwa:ma., နွား nwa:
Sindhi
ڳَئُون g̠aū̃
Dhivehi
ގެރި geri

Examples of cow in a sentence

  • By the time of my third, five months ago, I was a right bossy cow about what I wanted because I knew the drill.2014 December 5, Marina Hyde, “Childbirth is as awful as it is magical, thanks to our postnatal ‘care’”, in The Guardian, archived from the...
  • Large, steady, purplish-grey eyes gazed into beady, twinkling, black ones—gazed unquailingly—with something in them that cowed and compelled.1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon:
  • When a man resolves to become a warrior, when his life is given over to a transcendent cause, then he can’t be cowed by the Big Bad Wolf threatening to blow his house down.2021 [2001], John Eldredge, chapter 9, in Wild at Heart, Expanded edition, Nelson Books, →ISBN, pages 153–154:

All 40 example sentences with cow

Synonyms of cow

16 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of cow

Forms of cow

Noun
pluralcows
pluralcattle
pluralkine
pluralCOWs
pluralCoWs
plural (archaic, dialectal)kye
Verb
third-person singular presentcows
present participlecowing
past participlecowed
pastcowed
Proper noun
pluralCows

Plural of cow: cows or cattle

Origin of cow

Inherited from Middle English cow, cou, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”). Cognate with Sanskrit गो (go), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Danish and Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk ku (“cow”), Faroese kúgv (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”) (whence English beef), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef. The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cūna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).

Probably from Old Norse kúga (“to oppress”) (whence also Norwegian and Danish kue, Swedish kuva); compare Icelandic kúfa (“to set on top”) and Faroese kúga (“to oppress”).

Clipping of AT2018cow. From the name of the archetypal event, AT2018cow, an LFBOT. From being an astronomical transient (AT) occurring in 2018, with an automatically assigned code to distinguish it from other events in 2018.

Words formed from cow

Phrases with cow

99 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cow

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cow

What does cow mean?
Cow means an adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.
What is cow in Hindi?
Cow in Hindi is गाय (gāy), गो (go), गऊ (gaū). See Cow meaning in Hindi.
How do you use cow in a sentence?
By the time of my third, five months ago, I was a right bossy cow about what I wanted because I knew the drill.
What part of speech is cow?
Cow can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce cow?
Cow is pronounced /kaʊ/ (US).
What is the plural of cow?
The plural of cow is cows.

Words near cow in the dictionary

  1. covolatilities
  2. covolatility
  3. covolume
  4. covolumes
  5. covying
  6. cow
  7. cow bean
  8. cow beans
  9. cow bell
  10. cow bells
  11. cow belt

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cow (page history and authors); Cow (page history and authors); COW (page history and authors); CoW (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: en-uk-a cow.ogg, en-us-cow.ogg.

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