bum calf

plural bum calves

1. A young heifer or bull which has been orphaned or abandoned; it must be adopted by another cow, steal milk, or be bottle-fed in order to survive, and is therefore often a runt.

   She usually manages to be busy feeding some bum calf or wrangling the horses or something.

   1992, Teresa Jordan, Cowgirls: Women of the American West, page 83

   3 more examples

   At the start of calving season, there was another bum calf, Ferdinand, whose mother had abandoned him.

   2005, Lynn Parr, Cowgirl: A Home on the Wyoming Range, page 149

   I could do it all — I could play their game until I dropped — but I would never own a square foot of land, a bushel of oats or a bum calf in my own name.

   2002, Judy Blunt, Breaking Clean, page 291

   "I feel like a bum calf when you do this to me," Madeleine said and when her mother said, "What?" Madeleine said, "Never mind."

   1989, Gretel Ehrlich, Heart Mountain, page 114

   Synonyms: bummer, dogie, leppy