A pen or enclosure for cows.
1635. Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons, p. lxxii. To 11 women 2 days a peece weeding the oates in the cowpenns.
1688. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 987. As soon as they were set forth of the Cow-pens, they would fall a feeding.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., VI. li. 384. Driven from time to time into cowpens.
b. Comb. Cowpen-bird (U.S.) = COW-BIRD 2 a.
1826. J. Jennings, in Hone, Every-day Bk., II. 1138. There is a bird in the United States of America, called ‘Cowpen,’ emberiza pecoris, by Wilson.
1887. C. C. Abbott, Waste-Land Wand., ii. 55. The cowpen-bird, which is never mated, and for several months in the year deposits fertile eggs in the nests of other birds.
