Word.ws English Dictionary

kill-cow

kill-cow is the alternative form of killcow.

Meaning of killcow

Noun

killcow (plural killcows)

  1. (obsolete) A butcher.
    • Of all occupations that now adays are used / I would not be a butcher, for that's to be refused; / For whatever is gotten, or whatever is gained, / He shall be call'd Kill-cow, and so shall be named.c. 15th century, anonymous author, Old Ballad; quoted in Nares, Robert; Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard; Wright, Thomas, A Glossary; or, Collection of Words, Phrases, Names, and Allusions to...
  2. (figuratively, obsolete) A violent person; a bully; a brutal or indiscriminate killer.
    • Muster his arrant braveries together, and where such a terrible kill-cow, or such a vengeable bull-beggar, to deal withal?1593, Gabriel Harvey, Pierce's Supererogation; or, A New Praise of the Old Ass, published 1815, page 84

Forms of kill-cow

pluralkill-cows

Questions about kill-cow

What is kill-cow the alternative form of?
Kill-cow is the alternative form of killcow.

Words near kill-cow in the dictionary

  1. kill-buck
  2. kill-bucks
  3. kill-calf
  4. kill-courtesies
  5. kill-courtesy
  6. kill-cow
  7. kill-cows
  8. kill-death ratio
  9. kill-death ratios
  10. kill-deer
  11. kill-deers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kill-cow (page history and authors); killcow (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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