gaucho
Americannoun
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a cowboy of the South American pampas, usually of mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry.
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Also called gaucho pants. gauchos. wide, calf-length trousers for men or women modeled after the trousers worn by South American gauchos.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gaucho
First recorded in 1815–25; from South American Spanish, from Arawak cachu “comrade”
Vocabulary lists containing gaucho
South America - Middle School
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South America - Introductory
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South America - High School
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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.
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Gauchito Gil depicts a traditional Argentine cowboy known as the gaucho, a long-haired man with a mustache, red handkerchief around his neck and belt.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 8, 2024
There is even rural “gauchopunk” complete with gaucho androids dreaming of electric emus, conjured by Argentine writer Michel Nieva in a tongue-in-cheek reference to Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”
From New York Times ● Jun. 10, 2023
It was brought to Argentina's sprawling plains, or pampas, by British immigrants in the late 1800s, where it found a home alongside the South American country's iconic gaucho cowboys.
From Reuters ● Apr. 12, 2022
Sorority sisters wearing skirts and gaucho hats worked as greeters.
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2021
Next to an intrigue, the gaucho loves to gamble with cards and play billiards.
From The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn A Study of Life in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia by Spears, John R.
Past participants have included drovers from Australia and gauchos from South America.
From New York Times ● Sep. 26, 2018
West’s collection of freaks, cons, cowboys and unpredictable women in his 1939 “The Day of the Locust” predates Steely Dan’s own collection of freaks, cons and gauchos by 33 years.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 12, 2018
“We used to see gauchos making their own bridles, knives, belts, all by hand. We decided to do the same thing, but in the city.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2018
“He lived simply, and for others, at one with the gauchos and poor folk.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 13, 2016
And those are the horns of the dilemma often presented to the man who interviews gauchos in their native haunts.
From The Gold Diggings of Cape Horn A Study of Life in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia by Spears, John R.
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.