Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A cowboy or cowgirl.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a hired hand who tends cattle and performs other duties on horseback

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A cowhand is the most overworked and underpaid saphead that ever lost three nights 'sleep hand running and worked seventy-two hours on end; sleep in the rain or not at all -- to hold a job at forty per for six months in the year.

    The Settling of the Sage 1910

  • Sewall proved unadaptable, for he was rather old to learn new tricks so far removed from the activities that were familiar to him; but Dow became a "cowhand" overnight.

    Roosevelt in the Bad Lands Hermann Hagedorn 1923

  • And I can't sing, "I'm an old cowhand," either, as I'd have the same problem with that, or "The Twelve Days of Christmas": I'd freeze, just as surely, singing an old standard in front of my class as chanting the "Yogena..."

    Elizabeth Boleman-Herring: Just Do It Because I Say So Elizabeth Boleman-Herring 2012

  • Her mother was widely respected and sought after as both a cook and a cowhand, although the approval of her skill on horseback was usually grudgingly given.

    Western Man Janet Dailey 2011

  • Her mother was widely respected and sought after as both a cook and a cowhand, although the approval of her skill on horseback was usually grudgingly given.

    Western Man Janet Dailey 2011

  • Jerry, my friend the Sensei's response was: Why don't you just stand up and sing, 'I'm an old cowhand, from the Rio Grande...'

    Elizabeth Boleman-Herring: Just Do It Because I Say So Elizabeth Boleman-Herring 2012

  • The Metropolitan Police are investigating the attack, and have linked it to a recent incident at a dairy farm near Swindon when a cowhand was found attached to his own milking machine.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Dungeekin 2009

  • Jerry, my friend the Sensei's response was: Why don't you just stand up and sing, 'I'm an old cowhand, from the Rio Grande...'

    Elizabeth Boleman-Herring: Just Do It Because I Say So Elizabeth Boleman-Herring 2012

  • The Metropolitan Police are investigating the attack, and have linked it to a recent incident at a dairy farm near Swindon when a cowhand was found attached to his own milking machine.

    Politician Wounded in Terror Attack Dungeekin 2009

  • And I can't sing, "I'm an old cowhand," either, as I'd have the same problem with that, or "The Twelve Days of Christmas": I'd freeze, just as surely, singing an old standard in front of my class as chanting the "Yogena..."

    Elizabeth Boleman-Herring: Just Do It Because I Say So Elizabeth Boleman-Herring 2012

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