cowboy

Pluralcowboys

Formscowboys, cowboying, cowboyed

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A man who herds and cares for cattle grazing on open range, especially in the American West.

   The cowboy drove the herd across the open range toward the river.

   On the frontier, a cowboy might spend weeks alone with the cattle.

   Similarcowhand, herdsman, drover, wrangler

   Note

   A plain compound, cow plus boy, though the word names a grown man at work. Stephen Crane's Twelve O'Clock (1899) shows cowboys riding into town from outfits known by their brands, like the Upside-down-F ranch, and it gives them a reputation for rowdiness. The word's later figurative uses all borrow from this picture of the range worker, from the swaggering show-off to the corner-cutting tradesman.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A man who identifies with cowboy culture, wearing a cowboy hat and enjoying country and western music.

   He's a weekend cowboy who collects country records and never takes off his hat.

   The bar was full of city cowboys in fancy boots and ten-gallon hats.

3. 3
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountable

   A person who behaves recklessly, especially to show off.

   Some cowboy in a sports car cut across four lanes to show off.

   Don't be a cowboy on the ski slopes, or someone could get hurt.

   Similarhotshot, daredevil

4. 4
   nouncolloquialBritishcountable or uncountable

   An independent tradesman who is dishonest or does incompetent, poor-quality work.

   The cowboy who fixed our roof left it leaking worse than before.

   We hired some cowboy who botched the whole bathroom and then vanished.

   Similarcharlatan, rogue

   Note

   British speech turns the frontier figure into a complaint about the trades. The target is the independent operator who takes the job, does it badly or dishonestly, and moves on. It is an accusation rather than a description, so it is worth using with care. It is easily confused with the reckless show-off, but the charges differ: that cowboy takes risks to be seen, while this one cheats or bungles the customer.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To work as a cowboy, herding cattle on the open range.

   She decided to cowboy on her uncle's ranch after college.

   They cowboyed through the dry season, driving herds north.

   Note

   The noun became a verb of work, and it reads most naturally as a job description: Derwood Bailey cowboyed for 50 cents a day. It takes no object, so you cowboy, but you do not cowboy cattle. The gerund cowboying sits comfortably beside other trades, as when Sherry Robinson's El Malpais hiking guide (1994) pairs it with sawmill work.

6. 6
   nounslangcountable or uncountable

   In a deck of playing cards, any of the four kings.

   He slid a cowboy across the felt to complete his full house.

   Pocket cowboys gave her a strong start before the flop.

   Similarking

   Note

   Card-table slang, not the language of the rulebook: where the rules say king, players at the table may say cowboy. It is countable, so a pair of kings can be called cowboys. Outside a card game the word never means a king, so it depends on the setting of a hand being played and is best kept to casual talk around the game.

7. 7
   noununcountableabbreviationellipsis

   Short form of cowboy pool.

   They spent the evening shooting cowboy at the back table.

   She prefers cowboy to straight pool because of its scoring.

   Note

   Players shorten the name of the game itself. Cowboy pool is a descendant of English billiards, played to 101 points through various required types of shot. As a game name it takes no article and no plural: you play cowboy, just as you play chess. That sets it apart from the other senses of the word, which name people or cards.

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