drugstore cowboy

American  

noun

Slang.

1. a young man who loafs around drugstores or on street corners.

2. a person who dresses like a cowboy but has never worked as one.

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Etymology

Origin of drugstore cowboy

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Mathews continues, “I look at friends who made the wrong choice, who turned down the low-budget independent gig to take the high-priced job and the low-budget gig turned out to be a ‘Drugstore Cowboy’ or ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and the high-paying gig turned out to be something that came and went.

From Los Angeles Times

He described Haupt as a "drugstore cowboy," which was slang for a young man who hangs out on street corners or drugstores.

From Literature

After the indie poetry of Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, he made a handbrake turn into brittle, brilliant satire with To Die For and slam-dunked a major hit with Good Will Hunting before reappearing with the minimalist oddball comedy of Gerry and the discordant, Columbine-adjacent Elephant.

From The Guardian

He took the message to heart — “No one wanted to be a drugstore cowboy,” he said at his 2009 Hall of Fame induction — and earned all-state honors before landing at Evansville College, where he worked his way onto the NBA radar as a defensive-minded guard.

From Washington Post

Based on James Fogle’s memoir, Drugstore Cowboy could be a companion piece to Midnight Cowboy from 20 years earlier, in that both are about modern outlaws living hand-to-mouth in urban squalor, running short-term scams into long-term trouble.

From The Guardian