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cow1

Pronunciation: /kaʊ/
Translate cow | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of cow

noun

  • 1a fully grown female animal of a domesticated breed of ox, kept to produce milk or beef:a dairy cow
  • (loosely) a domestic bovine animal, regardless of sex or age.
  • (in farming) a female domestic bovine animal which has borne more than one calf. Compare with heifer.
  • the female of certain other large animals, for example elephant, rhinoceros, whale, or seal.
  • 2 informal an unpleasant or disliked woman.
  • Australian/NZ an unpleasant person or thing.

Phrases

have a cow

North American informal become angry, excited, or agitated:don’t have a cow—it’s no big deal

till the cows come home

informal for an indefinitely long time:those two could talk till the cows came home

Origin:

Old English , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch koe and German Kuh, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin bos and Greek bous

cow in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of cow in the US English dictionary
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