cowboy
/ˈkaʊˌbɔɪ/
cowboy noun: a man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West. Also the ellipsis of cowboy pool.
Noun
cowboy (countable and uncountable, plural cowboys)
- A man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.
- There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock
- A man who identifies with cowboy culture, including wearing a cowboy hat and being a fan of country and western music.
- A young lad employed to tend to cattle.
- Mr. Consadine had scarcely finished the sentence when he saw his cow-boy running up the street, shouting and crying aloud that the best cow in the inch field was lost and gone, and nobody knew what had become of her, or could give the least tidings of her.1828, T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South or Ireland, volume II, London: John Murray, page 312
- A person who engages in reckless behavior, especially for the purpose of showing off.
- A dishonest or incompetent independent tradesman.
- A playing card of king rank.
Verb
cowboy (third-person singular simple present cowboys, present participle cowboying, simple past and past participle cowboyed)
- To work as a cowboy, herding cattle.
- Besides cowboying he worked at a small sawmill that cut logs into "four slabs and a tie" and sold ties to the railroad.1994, Sherry Robinson, El Malpais, Mt. Taylor, and the Zuni Mountains: a hiking guide and history
- Derwood Bailey cowboyed for 50 cents a day, a noon meal, and a gallon of oats for his horse.1995, American Cowboy (volume 2, number 4, Nov-Dec 1995, page 26)
Also used as
cowboy is also the ellipsis of cowboy pool.
cowboy meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
cowboy in Hindi
- person who tends cattle
- काउबॉय kāubŏy, गोपाल gopāl
cowboy in Marathi
- man who identifies with cowboy culture
- काउबॉय kāubŏy
- person who tends cattle
- काउबॉय kāubŏy
cowboy in Urdu
- person who tends cattle
- کاؤبای kāubāy, گوپال gopāl
cowboy in Bengali
- person who tends cattle
- রাখাল rakhal
More languagesFewer languages
- cowboy in Telugu
- కౌబాయ్
- cowboy in Malayalam
- കൌബോയ്, കൌബായ്, കൌബോയിക്ക്
- cowboy in Kannada
- ಕೌಬಾಯ್
- cowboy in Punjabi
- ਕਾਊਬਾਏ, ਕਾਊਬੁਆਏ, ਕਾਉਬਾਏ
- cowboy in Gujarati
- કાઉબોય, કૌબોય, કાઉબોયને
- cowboy in Odia
- କାଉବଏ, କାଉବଯ଼
- cowboy in Nepali
- काउबॉय, काउबोय, काउब्वाय
- cowboy in Tagalog
- bakero
- cowboy in Arabic
- رَاعِي بَقَر rāʕī baqar, رَعَوِيّ الْبَقَر raʕawiyy al-baqar, بَقّار baqqār
- cowboy in Malay
- koboi
- cowboy in Persian
- گاوچران gâvčerân, کابوی kâboy
- cowboy in Thai
- คาวบอย kaao-bɔɔi
- cowboy in Vietnamese
- cao bồi
Examples of cowboy in a sentence
- Some said that the cowboy was the fastest gun in the West.
- Many cowboy poets have a buckaroo look and feel about them.
- The retired cowboy showed off his horsemanship by doing tricks in the saddle.
Forms of cowboy
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cowboys |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cowboys |
| present participle | cowboying |
| past participle | cowboyed |
| past | cowboyed |
Origin of cowboy
PIE word *gʷṓws From cow + boy. More on Wikipedia.
Words formed from cowboy
- all hat and no cowboy
- canteen cowboy
- cocaine cowboy
- cocksucking cowboy
- cowboy action shooting
- cowboy beans
- cowboy boot
- cowboy butter
- cowboy caviar
- cowboy chord
- cowboy church
- cowboy coffee
- cowboy-hatted
- cowboyish
- cowboyism
- cowboyitis
- cowboy killer
- cowboylike
- cowboy load
- cowboys and Indians
- cowboy shorts
- cowboy shot
- cowboy shower
- cowboy steak
- cowboy supper
- cowboy tea
- cowboy up
- cowpunk
- cybercowboy
- drugstore cowboy
- glowboy
- keyboard cowboy
- mail-order cowboy
- milk-bar cowboy
- noncowboy
- Queen's cowboy
- rhinestone cowboy
- singing cowboy
- space cowboy
Phrases with cowboy
- cowboy hat
- cowboy hats
- cowboy pool
- cowboy boots
- cowboy shots
- Cowboy State
- Urban Cowboy
- cowboy chords
- Cowboy Stater
- cowboy steaks
- cowboy killers
- cowboy showers
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Questions about cowboy
- What does cowboy mean?
- Cowboy means a man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.
- What is cowboy in Hindi?
- Cowboy in Hindi is काउबॉय (kāubŏy), गोपाल (gopāl). See Cowboy meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is cowboy?
- Cowboy can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce cowboy?
- Cowboy is pronounced /ˈkaʊˌbɔɪ/.
- What is the plural of cowboy?
- The plural of cowboy is cowboys.
Words near cowboy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cowboy (page history and authors); cowboy (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowboy (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowboy (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowboy (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowboy (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowboy (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cowboy (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-au-cowboy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “cowboy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cowboy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.