[Formerly pronounced with stress on hide, or with equal stress.]
1. The hide of a cow (stript off, ‘raw’ or ‘dressed’). (Also pl. † kine hides.)
1640–1. Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855), 148. The best kyne hydes, being rough, be sold for iiij libs.
1676. Hobbes, Iliad (1677), 141. He himself slept on a good Cow-hide.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem., I. 191. In a Robe of Cow-hide, Sat yeasty Pride.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VII. 127 (Jod.). A Negro,… his left arm wrapped round with a cow-hide.
1827. G. Higgins, Celtic Druids, 83. Ships, made of wicker, covered with bolg or cow hides.
2. Leather made of the hide of the cow.
1728. Pope, Dunc., I. 150. There Caxton slept, with Wynkyn at his side, One clasp’d in wood, and one in strong cow-hide.
1759. Goldsm., Polite Learning, ix. Bound in cow-hide and closed with clasps of brass.
3. U.S. A strong whip made of the raw or dressed hide of the cow. Cf. RAWHIDE.
1839. Marryat, Diary Amer., Ser. I. III. 230. He would receive forty lashes with a cow-hide.
1862. Sala, Ship Chandler, i. 6. The correction of a cowhide would be of the greatest possible benefit.
4. attrib. Made of cow-hide.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, v. 42. He … wore thick, cowhide boots.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., II. xxxiii. 191. Kicking the woman with his heavy cowhide shoe.
1851. J. L. Stephens, Centr. Amer. (1854), 323. His back was naked, and an alguazil stood on his left with a heavy cowhide whip.
