cowboy

plural cowboys

1. countableuncountableA man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.

   There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].”

   1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock

2. countableuncountableA man who identifies with cowboy culture, including wearing a cowboy hat and being a fan of country and western music.
3. countableobsoleteuncountableA young lad employed to tend to cattle.

   Mr. Consadine had scarcely finished the sentence when he saw his cow-boy running up the street, shouting and crying aloud that the best cow in the inch field was lost and gone, and nobody knew what had become of her, or could give the least tidings of her.

   1828, T. Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South or Ireland, volume II, London: John Murray, page 312

4. countableinformaluncountableA person who engages in reckless behavior, especially for the purpose of showing off.
5. New ZealandUKcountableinformaluncountableA dishonest or incompetent independent tradesman.
6. countableslanguncountablecard gamesA playing card of king rank.
7. abbreviationellipsisuncountableEllipsis of cowboy pool.

present singular third person cowboys · participle present cowboying · participle past cowboyed · past cowboyed

1. intransitiveTo work as a cowboy, herding cattle.

   Derwood Bailey cowboyed for 50 cents a day, a noon meal, and a gallon of oats for his horse.

   1995, American Cowboy (volume 2, number 4, Nov-Dec 1995, page 26)

   2 more examples

   Besides cowboying he worked at a small sawmill that cut logs into "four slabs and a tie" and sold ties to the railroad.

   1994, Sherry Robinson, El Malpais, Mt. Taylor, and the Zuni Mountains: a hiking guide and history

   I still had never ridden or cowboyed, and I wanted to learn something about it. I'd been making the damn saddles for years but didn't know how to use them.

   2003, C. J. Hadley, Trappings of the Great Basin Buckaroo