Word.ws English Dictionary

cowpoke

cowpoke noun: a cowhand (one who tends free-range cattle).

Noun

cowpoke (plural cowpokes)

  1. (US, slang) A cowhand (one who tends free-range cattle)
  2. (US, dated) A 19th-century device used around the necks of cows and other livestock to prevent them from challenging fencing. The action of the device was to poke the cow when the device came into contact with the fence.

Synonyms of cowpoke

Forms of cowpoke

pluralcowpokes

Origin of cowpoke

From cow + poke.

Questions about cowpoke

What does cowpoke mean?
Cowpoke means a cowhand (one who tends free-range cattle).
What part of speech is cowpoke?
Cowpoke is a noun.
What is the plural of cowpoke?
The plural of cowpoke is cowpokes.

Words near cowpoke in the dictionary

  1. Cowplain
  2. cowplop
  3. cowplops
  4. cowpock
  5. cowpocks
  6. cowpoke
  7. cowpokes
  8. cowponies
  9. cowpony
  10. cowpool
  11. cowpooled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cowpoke (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-au-cowpoke.ogg.

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