Cowtown

name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small town, a hick or backwards town. slang
  2. 2
    a small town in a cattle-raising area of western North America wordnet
  3. 3
    A town or city noted for its link to the cattle industry.

    "In July 1873 a St. Louis journalist visited Wichita and penned a colorful description of the frontier cowtown, the article appearing in the St. Louis Globe under the heading of “NEAR BRIMSTONE.”"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Nickname for Calgary: a major city in Alberta, Canada. Canada, slang

Synonyms

All synonyms
cow towncow townhicksvillehicktownhicktownone-horse town

Example

More examples

"My mom grew up in a real cowtown in eastern Washington called Moses Lake."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From cowtown, being the centre of the Canadian cattle industry.

Etymology 2

From cow + town.

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