COW

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cow mean? 

• COW (noun)
  The noun COW has 3 senses:

1. female of domestic cattle:

2. mature female of mammals of which the male is called 'bull'

3. a large unpleasant woman

  Familiarity information: COW used as a noun is uncommon.

• COW (verb)
  The verb COW has 1 sense:

1. subdue, restrain, or overcome by affecting with a feeling of awe; frighten (as with threats)

  Familiarity information: COW used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COW (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Female of domestic cattle:

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

cow; moo-cow

Context example:

'moo-cow' is a child's term

Hypernyms ("cow" is a kind of...):

Bos taurus; cattle; cows; kine; oxen (domesticated bovine animals as a group regardless of sex or age)

Meronyms (parts of "cow"):

bag; udder (mammary gland of bovids (cows and sheep and goats))

poll (the part of the head between the ears)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cow"):

springer; springing cow (a cow about to give birth)

heifer (young cow)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Mature female of mammals of which the male is called 'bull'

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("cow" is a kind of...):

eutherian; eutherian mammal; placental; placental mammal (mammals having a placenta; all mammals except monotremes and marsupials)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A large unpleasant woman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("cow" is a kind of...):

disagreeable woman; unpleasant woman (a woman who is an unpleasant person)

• COW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they cow    ... he / she / it cows   
Past simple: cowed   
Past participle: cowed   
-ing form: cowing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Subdue, restrain, or overcome by affecting with a feeling of awe; frighten (as with threats)

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

cow; overawe

Hypernyms (to "cow" is one way to...):

awe (inspire awe in)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "cow"):

buffalo (intimidate or overawe)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot cow Sue

Derivation:

coward (a person who shows fear or timidity)

 Context examples 

She picked up the leg sulkily and led her cow away, the poor animal limping on three legs.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

Their nourishment consisted entirely of the vegetables of their garden and the milk of one cow, which gave very little during the winter, when its masters could scarcely procure food to support it.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

His horse would have ran off, if a shepherd who was coming by, driving a cow, had not stopped it.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A nutritional substitute for breast milk, usually with a foundation of cow or soy milk.

(Infant Formula, NCI Thesaurus)

I fell into a beaten road, where I saw many tracts of human feet, and some of cows, but most of horses.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But you! Look there, rat, on yonder field where the cows graze, and on that other beyond, and on the orchard hard by the church.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He talked, or rather roared, with such energy that others could but sit and listen, cowed with the mighty stream of words.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Viruses infect vertebrates including man, monkeys, pigs and cows; primarily infect the gastrointestinal tract but also multiply in nerve, muscle, etc.

(Enterovirus, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)

The taxonomic order of mammals that includes even-toed ungulates such as pigs, cows, goats and sheep.

(Artiodactyla, NCI Thesaurus)

B. megaterium is found in soil and cow feces, associated with food-borne illness, pathogenic to humans and used to produce antimicrobial compounds.

(Bacillus megaterium, NCI Thesaurus)