cow

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“
(1919-1941), ` a commanding officer's wife 'was a COW, but in lower-case letters cow is Modem cadet slang for ` a third-year man at West Point, Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy.'

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun The mature female of cattle of the genus Bos.
  2. noun The mature female of other large animals, such as whales, elephants, or moose.
  3. noun A domesticated bovine of either sex or any age.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

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Examples

  • From my earliest memory the cow was the chief factor on the farm and her products the main source of the family income; around her revolved the haying and the harvesting. —  My Boyhood
  • Sometimes, in efforts to obtain relief, I borrowed a cow at one village and rode it to the next; but a cow is a poor mount and takes as a rule unkindly to the business. —  The Ivory Trail
  • Late in the evening one farmer voiced the real complaint of these people: 'What hurts us more than the loss of the cow is the fact that they treat us with contempt. —  Poland
  • (1919-1941), ` a commanding officer's wife 'was a COW, but in lower-case letters cow is Modem cadet slang for ` a third-year man at West Point, Annapolis, or the Air Force Academy.' —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 1
  • You're going to run off and leave all the decision making to me. " —  The Time of the Transference
 

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Words tagged cow

cheese · heifer

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Cow has been looked up 765 times, favorited once, listed 30 times, and commented on 3 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Suggestions Wordniks Suggest

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sheep ·  cattle ·  bull ·  ox ·  deer ·  horse ·  cat ·  elephant ·  mule ·  chicken ·  rabbit ·  hog
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English cou, from Old English cū; see gwou- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Probably of Scandinavian origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (6)

  1. from Middle English cow, kow, cou, cu, ku, plural ky, kye, kie, kuy (later modern Scots kye), also in double plural form (with suffix -en as in oxen), kyn, kin, kyen, kuyn, kiyn, kien, kine (later modern kine), from Anglo-Saxon cū, dative sing, and nominative accusative plural cy¯, a cow, = Old Saxon kū, kō, kuo = OFrics. kū = Dutch koe = Middle Low German ko, ku, Low German ko = Old High German chuo, chua, Middle High German kuo, ku, German kuh = Icelandic ky¯r (accusative kū) = Swedish Danish ko (Gothic (Moesogothic) not found), a cow, = Old Irish bō = Gaelic bō, a cow, = Welsh biw, cattle, kine, = Latin bos (bov-), masculine, also feminine (the feminine being also more distinctly expressed by bos femina, or else by another word, vacca, a cow, related to English ox), an ox, a bull or cow (whence ult. English beef (which is thus a doublet of cow), bovine, etc.), = Greek βοῦς (βοF-), masculine and feminine, an ox, a bull or cow, = Sanskrit go, a cow, a bull.
  2. from Middle English *couen (?), not found, from Icelandic kūga, cow, force, tyrannize over, = Swedish kufva, check, curb, subdue, = Danish kue, bow, coerce, subdue; further connections unknown.
  3. Origin obscure.
  4. A reduced form of cowl, q. v.
  5. A variant of coll: see coll.
  6. from cow, v.
 

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