cowboy
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A man who tends free-range cattle.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kowboySay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkaʊbɔɪ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.
A man who identifies with cowboy culture, including wearing a cowboy hat and being a fan of country and western music.
informal
Someone who is reckless or irresponsible (especially in driving vehicles)
informal
A person who engages in reckless behavior, especially for the purpose of showing off.
uncountable
A game derived from English billiards, with more of the characteristics of standard pocket billiards, and with players competing to reach a total of 101 points by performing various types of shot.
britishinformal
A dishonest or incompetent independent tradesman.
verb
intransitive
To work as a cowboy, herding cattle.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A man who tends free-range cattle, especially in the American West.
Used this way, cowboy is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- cowpuncher , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
- puncher , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use cowboy
- “The brave cowboy rode his horse across the vast open plains.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: man who tends free-range cattle
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.