Word.ws English Dictionary

cowlstaff

UK/ˈkaʊlstɑːf/

cowlstaff noun: a staff used to carry a cowl or other burden, especially held by two people on their shoulders.

Noun

cowlstaff (plural cowlstaffs or cowlstaves)

  1. A staff used to carry a cowl or other burden, especially held by two people on their shoulders.
    • [fight] performed by bastons, clubs and coulstaves1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C....
    • Prepare an iron cowlstaff / obtain one of steel: / put steel at its core / and on top draw soft iron!1989, Elias Lönnrot, translated by Keith Bosley, The Kalevala, section XVII

Forms of cowlstaff

pluralcowlstaffs
pluralcowlstaves

Origin of cowlstaff

From Old French cuvele, from Latin cupela, diminutive of cupa (“cask”), + staff. cowl + staff.

Questions about cowlstaff

What does cowlstaff mean?
Cowlstaff means a staff used to carry a cowl or other burden, especially held by two people on their shoulders.
What part of speech is cowlstaff?
Cowlstaff is a noun.
How do you pronounce cowlstaff?
Cowlstaff is pronounced /ˈkaʊlstɑːf/ (UK).
What is the plural of cowlstaff?
The plural of cowlstaff is cowlstaffs.

Words near cowlstaff in the dictionary

  1. cowlneck
  2. cowlnecks
  3. cowlot
  4. cowlots
  5. cowls
  6. cowlstaff
  7. cowlstaffs
  8. cowlstaves
  9. cowman
  10. cowmanship
  11. cowmeat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cowlstaff (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.

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