cowboy ((n.))

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

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1†n.

a man who works as a rider on a cattle or horse ranch.

Quotations

1882

Davy, chief cow-boy in . . . this place, says his birthday always comes on Easter Sunday.

1912

But you must not think of Edmonton as a rough primitive place with cow-boys "shooting up the town," and so forth.

1962

Many of the early cowboys . . . remained on the open ranges of the Canadian territories. . . .

2n. — Slang

in mining, a greenhorn.

1959

Cowboy alone has acquired a romantic connotation (except in the mines where it is a synonym for "greenhorn").