Word.ws English Dictionary

have a cow

have a cow verb: to get angry; have a fit.

Verb

have a cow (third-person singular simple present has a cow, present participle having a cow, simple past and past participle had a cow)

  1. (colloquial) To get angry; have a fit.
    • My mom had a cow when I came in late.
    • Dad says I'm too young to go steady and seems to think I'm going to drag a girl up the aisle instead of to a school dance. He won't let me watch rock 'n' roll shows, and he'd "have a cow" if he knew I watched 77 Sunset Strip.1959 April 1, The Des Moines Register, page 9
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see have, a, cow.

Forms of have a cow

third-person singular presenthas a cow
present participlehaving a cow
past participlehad a cow
pasthad a cow

Origin of have a cow

Unknown. Popularized by the TV show The Simpsons where it was one of the catchphrases of Bart Simpson.

Questions about have a cow

What does have a cow mean?
Have a cow means to get angry; have a fit.
What part of speech is have a cow?
Have a cow is a verb.
What is the past tense of have a cow?
The past tense of have a cow is had a cow.

Words near have a cow in the dictionary

  1. have a bun in the oven
  2. have a care
  3. have a clue
  4. have a cob on
  5. have a couple
  6. have a cow
  7. have a crack at
  8. have a crow to pull
  9. have a dog and bark oneself
  10. have a fable for
  11. have a face on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have a 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-au-have a cow.ogg.

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