COWS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cows mean? 

• COWS (noun)
  The noun COWS has 1 sense:

1. domesticated bovine animals as a group regardless of sex or age

  Familiarity information: COWS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COWS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Domesticated bovine animals as a group regardless of sex or age

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

Bos taurus; cattle; cows; kine; oxen

Context example:

a team of oxen

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

bovine (any of various members of the genus Bos)

Meronyms (parts of "cows"):

beef; boeuf (meat from an adult domestic bovine)

Meronyms (members of "cows"):

calf (young of domestic cattle)

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

ox (an adult castrated bull of the genus Bos; especially Bos taurus)

stirk (yearling heifer or bullock)

bullock; steer (castrated bull)

bull (uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle)

cow; moo-cow (female of domestic cattle:)

beef; beef cattle (cattle that are reared for their meat)

Welsh; Welsh Black (a breed of dual-purpose cattle developed in Wales)

red poll (hornless short-haired breed of beef and dairy cattle)

Africander (tall large-horned humped cattle of South Africa; used for meat or draft)

dairy cattle; dairy cow; milch cow; milcher; milk cow; milker (cattle that are reared for their milk)

Devon (red dual-purpose cattle of English origin)

grade (a variety of cattle produced by crossbreeding with a superior breed)

Holonyms ("cows" is a member of...):

Bos; genus Bos (wild and domestic cattle; in some classifications placed in the subfamily Bovinae or tribe Bovini)

herd (a group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals all of the same kind that are herded by humans)

 Context examples 

The cows lumbered out of my way, and the distance between me and the bull decreased.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I read in the typescript that in my trance I heard cows low and water swirling level with my ears and the creaking of wood.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Likewise a small house, with stalls for the cows, and thirty-six gallons of beer for the thirsty weather.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sheep-marks there were in profusion, and at one place, some miles down, cows had left their tracks.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had the tallow of three hundred cows, for greasing my boat, and other uses.

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

It was unfortunate that the poundman had gobbled Maria's cows.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

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

(Artiodactyla, NCI Thesaurus)

Warm ocean waters caused the widespread loss of seagrasses, a main food source for dugongs (sea cows) and other species that are the sharks' prey.

(Sharks, the seagrass protectors, National Science Foundation)

They had in fact nothing to wish for, but the marriage of Colonel Brandon and Marianne, and rather better pasturage for their cows.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

EXAMPLE(S): flock of ducks, litter of mice, herd of cows

(Biologic Entity Group, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)