cowboys and Indians
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of cowboys and Indians
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Western was once Hollywood’s signature genre, and “Imagining the Indian” revisits cowboys and Indians movies, television shows and cartoons in a rapid-fire introductory montage.
From Washington Post • Apr. 4, 2023
For cowboys and Indians balance, when he was planning the Cody side trip, Zheng said, “I did consider staying in a teepee.”
From Washington Times • Aug. 2, 2017
Growing up in Texas, the son of a poor cotton farmer, he’d been enchanted by tales of the Osage Hills—that vestige of the American frontier where cowboys and Indians were said to still roam.
From The New Yorker • Mar. 1, 2017
The original Westerns are so often about cowboys and Indians, black hats and white hats, and simple lines drawn in the sand.
From The Verge • Aug. 12, 2016
He became a plain on which, like the cowboys and Indians in the movies, she and her husband fought.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
