cow
1 Americannoun
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cows,
plural
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kine
plural (Archaic)
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the mature female of a bovine animal, especially of the genus Bos.
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the female of certain other mammals, as elephants, seals, and whales.
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Informal. a domestic bovine of either sex and any age.
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Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
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a contemptible woman, especially one who is fat, stupid, lazy, etc.
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a woman who has a large number of children or is frequently pregnant.
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idioms
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have a cow, to become very angry or upset; throw a fit.
My mom will have a cow when she hears I'm moving.
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till / until the cows come home, for a long time; forever.
You can keep arguing till the cows come home, but I won't change my mind.
verb (used with object)
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cows,
present (3rd person singular)
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cowed,
past participle, past
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cowing
present participle
noun
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the mature female of any species of cattle, esp domesticated cattle
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the mature female of various other mammals, such as the elephant, whale, and seal
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(not in technical use) any domestic species of cattle
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informal a disagreeable woman
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slang something objectionable (esp in the phrase a fair cow )
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informal for a very long time; effectively for ever
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cowsimple
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cowssimple
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have cowedperfect
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has cowedperfect
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am cowingprogressive
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are cowingprogressive
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is cowingprogressive
-
have been cowingperfect progressive
-
has been cowingperfect progressive
Past
-
cowedsimple
-
had cowedperfect
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was cowingprogressive
-
were cowingprogressive
-
had been cowingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cow1
First recorded before 900; Middle English cou, cu, Old English cuu, cū; cognate with German Kuh, Dutch koe, Old Norse kȳr, Sanskrit gáuḥ “ox, cow,” Latin bōs “ox, cow,” Greek boûs “ox, cow”; cf. bovine, gaur
Origin of cow2
First recorded in 1610–20; perhaps from Old Norse kūga “to oppress, cow”; compare Norwegian kue “to cow”
Explanation
If it lives on a farm, makes a mooing sound, and produces milk, it is probably a cow. Most people would immediately identify a cow, the large, cud-chewing female of what is known as "cattle." Cows are typically domesticated farm animals, though the females of wilder bovine relatives are also called cows. The verb form of cow, "to frighten or subdue," comes from the docile nature of most cows — they are fairly easy to intimidate, or easily cowed. The Old English root is cu, from the Indo-European gwous, which might have developed from the sound that cows make.
Vocabulary lists containing cow
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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.
See Examples For:
All of them found a buyer apart from a concrete cow.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Anthropic has decided to keep its Claude chatbot ad-free, eschewing what has become a cash cow for OpenAI and other Big Tech companies.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
McDaniel teased reporters when asked about Hampton’s expected usage, apologizing to fantasy owners for his inability to declare the running back the bell cow because of their other options he has to work with.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
“It was like, ‘Holy cow guys, this worked—like, it worked,’” Hoge said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
They were given a team of mules, a milk cow, chickens, pigs, and all kinds of farm machinery; even a little money.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
They occur naturally in the milk of animals such as cows, sheep, and goats, but they can also be produced artificially during the manufacture of partially hydrogenated fats.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
Her family raise dairy cows west of Chippenham, selling their milk to a major supermarket.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Ditto manufacturers of petrochemicals and even dairy farmers since cows emit methane.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
"The project is so massive that it's basically hard to really grasp, even though we're right here on the sidelines," Pitkanen said, as a few cows dozed in a meadow in front of the barn.
From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026
She thought of the Shareef family and their herd of cows.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
Many a notable came to see the thousands of sleek porkers, fuzzy sheep, velvety kine, clucking fowl.
From Time Magazine Archive
The crowd expects his office to be bucolic and full of ewes and kine.
From Time Magazine Archive
After the ravages of more than three years of war, it will take more than candy, bubble gum and "al kine camera bag" to supply a decent living standard for South Korea's 22 million people.
From Time Magazine Archive
He gazed with placid satisfaction out of his car window at the Argentine's horizon-filling wheat ranches and pampas, at her myriad herds of kine and mutton.
From Time Magazine Archive
“I need time for marinate your dad’s favorite ribs. Wouldn’t be right to eat any kine food.”
From "Clairboyance" by Kristiana Kahakauwila
But O’Donnell has refused to be cowed by the president’s bullying for nearly 20 years.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
But feminists should not be cowed — and not just because this case, a version of which was already litigated in Carroll’s favor, is likely to crumble in court.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
But he insisted that he would not be cowed by antisemitism.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
Of course some of us wept and raged when he once again had to flee some bigger monkey that he had clearly annoyed, but while Punch was certainly cowed, he was never broken.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2026
The legionnaires of the honor guard bristle, hands on their weapons, but at one look from Cain, they settle back, a pack of barely cowed dogs.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
“To have the same effect of cowing the Taiwan population, Beijing is forced to be more threatening,” said Ja Ian Chong, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2022
Klayman has historically showed little sign of cowing before powerful figures.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2021
Hurston defiantly writes without cowing to such worries.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2020
Some faculty members have criticized the statement as cowing to the legislature and not sticking up for faculty.
From Slate ● Jun. 1, 2015
Rather than cowing the students into submission, the arrests stiffened their resolve, and they returned to the streets with renewed conviction.
From "Because They Marched" by Russell Freedman
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.
