1. A boy who tends cows.
1725. Swift, Receipt to Stella. Justices o’ quorum, Their cow-boys bearing cloaks before ’um.
1787. O’Keefe, Farmer. A flaxen-headed Cow Boy, As simple as may be.
1887. A. Lang, Johnny Nut, 1. A little cow-boy named Johnny Nut.
2. U.S. Hist. ‘A contemptuous appellation applied to some of the tory partisans of Westchester Co., New York, during the Revolutionary war, who were exceedingly barbarous in the treatment of their opponents who favored the American cause’ (Bartlett, Dict. Amer.).
1775–83. Thacher, Mil. Jrnl. (1823), 285. Banditti consisting of lawless villains within the British lines have received the names of Cow-boys and Skinners.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 290. Who knows but you are one o’ the tories, yourself;—or one o’ the white boys—or cow boys—or skinners.
1857. W. Irving, Washington (1865), IV. ix. 109. A beautiful region … now almost desolated by the scourings of Skinners and Cow Boys.
3. In the western U.S.: A man employed to take care of grazing cattle on a ranch.
It is typical of the cow-boy that he does his work on horseback, and leads a hard rough life, which tends to make him rough and wild in character.
1882. E. V. Smalley, New North-West, in Century Mag., 511/1. In place of the cow-boy we find the buffalo-hunter.
1884. Miles City (Montana) Press, June. The latest troubles between cowboys and Indians will cause an outbreak of redskins.
1887. Spectator, 10 Sept., 1219. The rough-and-ready life of men who have cast their lot among cow-boys.
4. A local name for the Ring Ouzel.
(Tipperary: Swainson, Bird Names, 1885.)
