Sc. [A later form of COLL v.2: cf. knowe, pow, rowe, scrow, from knoll, poll, roll, scroll, etc.]
1. trans. To poll (the head); to clip, cut short, top, prune. Hence Cowed (cowit), ppl. a.
1500–20. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 275. Weil couth I … kemm his cowit noddill.
1536. Bellenden, Descr. Alb., xvi. (Jam.). Nane of thaym throw ythand cowing of their hedis grew beld.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Flyting, 453. They made it like ane scraped swyne; And as they cowd they made it whryne.
1786. Burns, Ordination, xiii. They’ll … cowe her measure shorter By th’ head, some day.
1828. Minute Council Dumbarton, in Hist. Dumbarton (1878), 42. To cut and cow her hair, gif need be.
2. To overtop; surpass, excel: esp. in phrases that cowes the gowan, that cowes a’.
1842. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. 18. The … proverb … ‘That cowes, or keels, the gowan.’
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm. (1858), 556, note. There was surely some God’s soul at work for us, or she [a vessel] would never have cowed yon [wave].
