cowboyitis
cowboyitis noun: a desire to lead the life of a cowboy, e.g. to own or work on a ranch or wear stereotypical trappings such as a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, etc.
Noun
cowboyitis (uncountable)
- A desire to lead the life of a cowboy, e.g. to own or work on a ranch or wear stereotypical trappings such as a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, etc.
- “Cowboyitis” strikes down men and women of all ages, educational backgrounds, and professions. The stockbroker, insurance agent, and college professor are as likely to be victims as the truckdriver, construction worker, or cab driver. This social disease is epidemic both east and west of the Rocky...1980, Paul A. Hutton, The Cowboy Hero review, Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, Number 3, Summer 1980, pages 321-322
- He owns a horse, a Morgan filly named Funquest Siri, and soon he'll own a ranch near Kansas City (he won't say where). Moreover, Brett has the chafed fanny and blistered memories of riding a real roundup back to his claim.
It's not unreasonable to credit some of Brett's cowboyitis for his more...1999, Mark Zeligman, George Brett: A Royal Hero, page 59
Origin of cowboyitis
From cowboy + -itis.
Questions about cowboyitis
- What does cowboyitis mean?
- Cowboyitis means a desire to lead the life of a cowboy, e.g. to own or work on a ranch or wear stereotypical trappings such as a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, etc.
- What part of speech is cowboyitis?
- Cowboyitis is a noun.
Words near cowboyitis in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cowboyitis (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:
Cite this entry: “cowboyitis.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cowboyitis. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.