noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A cowhand (one who tends free-range cattle) US, slang
2. 2
   a hired hand who tends cattle and performs other duties on horseback wordnet
3. 3
   A 19th-century device used around the necks of cows and other livestock to prevent them from challenging fencing. The action of the device was to poke the cow when the device came into contact with the fence. US, dated

Synonyms

All synonyms

cowhandcow-punchercowboycowhandcowherdcowman

Etymology

From cow + poke.

Related phrases

free range

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.