dude ranch

noun

Synonym of guest ranch.

Meanings

noundude ranch (plural dude ranches)

plural dude ranches

  1. 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 1
    2 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 2013

    Synonyms: guest ranch

Synonyms & antonyms

nounSynonym of guest ranch.

Also see

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
APA

dude ranch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dude%20ranch

MLA

“dude ranch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dude%20ranch. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

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.