cow

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“
But farmers in Exeter instead believe that mooing like a cow could be the key to inner peace.

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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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Words tagged cow

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

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sheep ·  cattle ·  bull ·  ox ·  deer ·  horse ·  cat ·  elephant ·  mule ·  chicken ·  rabbit ·  hog

Used in the same contextWord Family

cow:   cows ·  cowed
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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