cowboy up

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

1. To deal with hardship with toughness and without complaining; man up.

   “Cowboy up!”, your excuses are gettin thin!

   2012, Mel Leslie, A Cowboy's Journey Through My Eyes: A Book of Poems, →ISBN, page 11

   4 more examples

   COWBOY UP!! Be a man, son. Walk it off, says the coach.

   2004, Mary Ann Van Osdell, Hands Pointed Up, →ISBN, page 61

   Now they think we can't cowboy up, but we could show'em a thang or three.

   2014, Sam Welch, What's Your Problem, Cowboy?, →ISBN

   It's past time to cowboy up and do what's right, even if it means accepting the stigma involved in visibly and vocally standing up for good people like Paco and Lupe.

   2018 August 5, “Writers on the Range: To survive we need immigrants working the land”, in The Durango Herald

   Men in rural America are taught to "cowboy up" and not speak of depression.

   August 24, 2018, “A Suicide on the Farm”, in CNN

2. idiomaticTo put on a more heterosexual manner, in order to fit in.