cattle drive

plural cattle drives · alternative cattle-drive

1. The process of transporting a herd of bovine animals (such as bulls, cows, or steers) by compelling them to walk across a significant distance of countryside, under the escort of drovers on horseback and often over a period of days.

   With the great annual cattle drives which start from the arid plains of the Red River and the Pecos comes the wild cowboy, with his six-shooter on his hip.

   1884 June, “Beef: From the Range to the Shambles”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 69, number 409, page 292

2. A trail or route used for the movement of herds of cattle.

   On the other side of the mill-pond was an open place called the Cross, because it was three-quarters of one, two lanes and a cattle-drive meeting there.

   1880, Thomas Hardy, chapter 1, in The Trumpet Major