DictionaryAI

heifer

noun
HEF-er/ˈhɛfə(ɹ)/UKHEF-uh/ˈhɛfə(ɹ)/

Pluralheifers

3 meanings of heifer

Practice

  1. 1
    young cownouncountable
    A young female cow, especially one more than a year old that has not yet given birth to a calf.

    She raised a heifer for her 4-H project and showed it at the state fair.

    The rancher kept his best heifers to replace the older cows in his breeding herd.

    Note

    The farmyard sense the others grow from: Middle English heyfre, from Old English hēahfore, a word whose deeper origin is disputed. The King James Bible of 1611 asks for “a red heifer without spot.” In Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale the steer, the heifer and the calf “are all call'd neat,” neat being the collective word for cattle, which he puns on against neat meaning clean.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

    • Heifer descends through Middle English heyfre from Old English hēahfore; its deeper etymology is disputed. en.wiktionary.org
    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
    • The King James Bible requests a red heifer without spot, in Numbers 19:2; the command is spoken by the LORD to Moses and Aaron. en.wikisource.org
    • Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale contains the quoted words about the steer, heifer and calf; Leontes speaks them. gutenberg.org
    • Neat can mean cattle collectively. en.wiktionary.org
    • The passage plays on neat meaning clean and neat meaning cattle. gutenberg.org
  2. 2
    insult (woman)nounslangderogatorycountable
    An insulting name for a woman who is considered unattractive or unpleasant.

    That heifer next door called the cops on us again over the music.

    Move your car, heifer, you're blocking my driveway!

    Similarcow

    Note

    In T.C. Haliburton's Sam Slick's Wise Saws (1853) a speaker has "half a mind to marry that heifer," a joke that keeps the "wife" meaning within earshot.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • Thomas Chandler Haliburton wrote Sam Slick's Wise Saws and Modern Instances. en.wikipedia.org
    • The book's first publication year is 1853, matching the early edition's title page. upload.wikimedia.org
    • The quoted phrase occurs in the book; Wiktionary locates it in volume II, page 282. en.wiktionary.org
    • Heifer has an obsolete meaning wife, supporting the note's interpretive connection. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    nounobsolete
    A wife; the woman a person is married to.
    Her, whom I shall choose for my heicfar.
    1609, Ben Jonson, “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie.”
    Note

    Here the farmyard word is turned on a spouse, in a use that is now obsolete. Ben Jonson's Epicoene (1609) has a speaker look ahead to the woman “whom I shall choose for my heicfar.” The comparison of a woman to a young cow survives only as a slang insult, so a modern listener is likely to hear contempt rather than period color.

Practice

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Origin

Inherited from Middle English heyfre (also hayfre, heyfer), which came from Old English hēahfore or hēahfru. The deeper origin of the Old English word is disputed.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

  • Heifer is inherited from Middle English heyfre, with the variants hayfre and heyfer. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Middle English word came from Old English hēahfore or hēahfru. en.wiktionary.org
  • The deeper origin of the Old English word is disputed. en.wiktionary.org