cow

The whole herd is out to pasture right now — the cows, calves, and heifers are out back, and the bulls are down by the creek.

(strictly) An adult female of the species Bos taurus, especially one that has calved.

We saw lots of cows at the farm show, including some surprisingly gigantic bulls.

(loosely or informal) Any member of the species Bos taurus regardless of sex or age, including bulls and calves.

The only meat I eat is cow.

(uncommon, uncountable) Beef: the meat of cattle as food.

(uncommon) Any bovines or bovids generally, including yaks, buffalo, etc.

en:female of any of various mammalian species

(biology) A female member of other large species of mammal, including the bovines, moose, whales, seals, hippos, rhinos, manatees, and elephants.

[…] the worst insult to a woman, either in London or Paris, is "cow"; a name which might even be a compliment, for cows are among the most likeable of animals.

1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter XXXII, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC:

Greville Preston: You've been set up, you silly cow. Now, don't let me hear any more about this unless you have absolute stand-up-in-court proof it's kosher...
Mattie Storin: Pig.

1990, House of Cards, Season 1, Episode 2:

By the time of my third, five months ago, I was a right bossy cow about what I wanted because I knew the drill. For reasons I shan’t bore you with, I got them to induce me at 39 weeks, at 10am, with the epidural going in first, and it was all a dream.

2014 December 5, Marina Hyde, “Childbirth is as awful as it is magical, thanks to our postnatal ‘care’”, in The Guardian:

(derogatory, UK, Ireland, informal) A woman considered unpleasant in some way, particularly one considered nasty, stupid, fat, lazy, or difficult.

Coordinate term: dog

(mining) A chock: a wedge or brake used to stop a machine or car.

Colonel Red Reeder, West Point Second Classman
An assistant manager, wearing the stripes of a cadet corporal, walked up to Coach Smith. Clint knew him, a Cow from B-l. What had he done to become so outstanding that the Tacs made him a corporal?

When I was a cow (junior) at West Point, I dated a plebe (freshman), which is considered fraternization in the cadet realm.

2023, James E Parco, David A Levy, Daphne DePorres, Attitudes Aren't Free: A Call to Action, page 242:

(US, military, slang) A third-year cadet at West Point.

(fishing, slang) A fish that is very large for its species, such as a large striped bass or large bluefin tuna.

en-noun

cow (countable and uncountable, plural cows or cattle or (archaic or dialectal) kine)

cows (plural)
cattle (plural)
kine (archaic dialectal plural)

bull

antonym(s) of “female domesticated ox or other bovine”

the cow knows not the worth of its tail till it loses it

why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free

Sranan Tongo: kaw

Tok Pisin: kau

q

from <i class="Latn mention" lang="en">cows</i>

→ Abenaki: kaoz (from cows)

→ Maori: kau

𐕖𐕒𐕡𐕙

any domestic bovine regardless of sex or age

kýr

of bovines, manatees, whales; also of reindeer and elk/moose

noozhez

of moose, mare, deer, elk, carabou, hind

From Middle English cou, cu, from Old English cū (“cow”), from Proto-West Germanic *kō, from Proto-Germanic *kōz (“cow”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).
Cognate with Sanskrit गौ (gow), Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs), Persian گاو (gâv)), Latvian govs (“cow”), Proto-Slavic *govędo (Serbo-Croatian govedo, Russian говядина (govjadina) ("beef")), Scots coo (“cow”), North Frisian ko, kø (“cow”), West Frisian ko (“cow”), Dutch koe (“cow”), Low German Koh, Koo, Kau (“cow”), German Kuh (“cow”), Swedish ko (“cow”), Norwegian ku (“cow”), Icelandic kýr (“cow”), Latin bōs (“ox, bull, cow”), Armenian կով (kov, “cow”). Doublet of beef.
The plural kine is from Middle English kyne, kyn, kuin, kiin, kien (“cows”), either a double plural of Middle English ky, kye (“cows”), equivalent to modern kye + -en, or inherited from Old English cȳna (“cows', of cows”), genitive plural of cū (“cow”).


cow

Con artists are not cowed by the law.

To vanquish a people already cowed.

1711 September 22 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, September 11, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 167; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page Steele:

Emily looked across at the girl. Large, steady, purplish-grey eyes gazed into beady, twinkling, black ones—gazed unquailingly—with something in them that cowed and compelled. The black eyes wavered and fell, their owner covering her retreat with another giggle and toss of her short braid of hair.

1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon:

(transitive, chiefly in the passive voice) To intimidate; to daunt the spirits or courage of.

en-verb

cow (third-person singular simple present cows, present participle cowing, simple past and past participle cowed)

cows (present singular third-person)
cowing (participle present)
cowed (participle past)
cowed (past)

сплашвам

to intimidate — see also intimidate, daunt

Probably from Old Norse kúga (“to oppress”) (whence also Norwegian and Danish kue, Swedish kuva); compare Icelandic kúfa (“to set on top”) and Faroese kúga (“to oppress”).


cow

Who could live to gaze from day to day on bricks and slates, who had once felt the influence of a scene like this? Who could continue to exist, where there are no cows but the cows on the chimneypots; nothing redolent of Pan but pan-tiles; […]

1836, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers:


cow

luminous fast blue optical transient#English

(astronomy) LFBOT: Synonym of luminous fast blue optical transient

Clipping of AT2018cow. From the name of the archetypal event, AT2018cow, an LFBOT. From being an astronomical transient (AT) occurring in 2018, with an automatically assigned code to distinguish it from other events in 2018.