cow
/kaʊ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms cows cattle kye kine cowing cowed
- noun (strictly) An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved. “The whole herd is out to pasture right now — the cows, calves, and heifers are out back, and the bulls are down by the creek.”
- noun (loosely or informal) Any member of the species Bos taurus that is not of a bucking breed or fighting breed, regardless of sex or age, including steers and calves. “We saw lots of cows at the farm show, including some surprisingly gigantic bulls.”
- noun (uncommon, uncountable) Beef: the meat of cattle as food. “The only meat I eat is cow.”
- noun (uncommon) Any bovines or bovids generally, including yaks, buffalo, etc.
- noun (biology) A female member of other large species of mammal, including the bovines, moose, whales, seals, hippos, rhinos, manatees, and elephants.
- noun (derogatory, UK, Ireland, informal) A woman considered unpleasant in some way, particularly one considered nasty, stupid, fat, lazy, or difficult.
- noun (mining) A chock: a wedge or brake used to stop a machine or car.
- noun (US, military, slang) A third-year cadet at West Point.
- verb (transitive, chiefly passive voice) To intimidate; to daunt the spirits or courage of. “Con artists are not cowed by the law.”
- noun (UK, dialect) A chimney cowl.
- noun (astronomy) LFBOT: Synonym of luminous fast blue optical transient.
- proper noun A surname
Synonyms
cattle beast bitch bastard moo-cow dolphinet bugger buffalo bulldoze bully browbeat dastardize daunt dishearten do down domineer drive hector intimidate menace strong-arm overawe
Antonyms
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English cow, cou, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Cognate with Sanskrit गो (go), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina, “beef”), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Danish and Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk ku (“cow”), Faroese kúgv (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”) (whence English beef), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef.
The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cūna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).
Probably from Old Norse kúga (“to oppress”) (whence also Norwegian and Danish kue, Swedish kuva); compare Icelandic kúfa (“to set on top”) and Faroese kúga (“to oppress”).
Clipping of AT2018cow. From the name of the archetypal event, AT2018cow, an LFBOT. From being an astronomical transient (AT) occurring in 2018, with an automatically assigned code to distinguish it from other events in 2018.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A chimney cap; a cowl
- noun The mature female of bovine animals.
- noun The female of certain large mammals, as whales, seals, etc.
- verb To depress with fear; to daunt the spirits or courage of; to overawe.
Etymology [See Cowl a hood.]
Etymology [OE. cu, cou, AS. c; akin to D. koe, G. kuh, OHG. kuo, Icel. k, Dan. & Sw. ko, L. bos ox, cow, Gr. g. sq. root223. Cf. Beef, Bovine, Bucolic, Butter, Nylghau.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cow”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details