Meanings
plural dude ranches
- Synonym of guest ranch.
‘Is this Scott Lawson's dude ranch?’ soberly inquired the rider of the pinto.
1921 March, Scribner's Magazine, volume 343, number 12 more examples
1956, P. G. Wodehouse, 'French Leave', Barrie & Jenkins, London: 1974, p 125. ...I didn't get on very well with my stepmother, so I cleared off and went to America. I was there several years, doing various jobs. I was on the waterfront for a time, and I worked on a dude ranch and went prospecting with a friend of mine in the Mojave desert and ... oh, lots of things. When the war broke out, I was a waiter at a New York hotel.
I spent four summers from the age of 18 working as the baker of the HF Bar dude ranch situated at the base of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming.
2008 August 12, Claire Ptak, “Perfect corn bread”, in The Observer, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Dec 2013Synonyms: guest ranch
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of guest ranch.
Origin
From dude (“a tourist, a dandy”) + ranch. First use appears c. 1899, in the Bismarck Tribune.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
dude ranch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dude%20ranch
“dude ranch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dude%20ranch. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dude ranch,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dude%20ranch.
Source: dude ranch on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.