cow chip

plural cow chips · alternative cowchip · alternative cow-chip

1. A piece of dried cow dung, used especially as fuel in the Third World and by early North American settlers.

   Eleodes obsoleta: Common on the plains, beneath cow-chips and rubbish, everywhere from Denver to Colorado Springs.

   1877, Philip Reese Uhler, "ART. XXXI - Report upon the insects collected by P. R. Uhler during the explorations of 1875," U. S. Department of the Interior, p. 778 (Google preview)

   2 more examples

   He unhitched and unharnessed the team, turned it loose with the horse herd, remuda, and helped the cook gather cow chips for fuel.

   1995, Laban Samuel Records, Cherokee Outlet Cowboy, →ISBN, page 90

   When cattle replaced buffalo on the plains, cow chips in turn replaced buffalo chips as a ready source of British thermal units.

   2012, Mike Cox, Texas Panhandle Tales, →ISBN, page 121