intimidate implies inducing fear or a sense of inferiority into another.
intimidated by so many other bright freshmen
cow implies reduction to a state where the spirit is broken or all courage is lost.
not at all cowed by the odds against making it in show business
bulldoze implies an intimidating or an overcoming of resistance usually by urgings, demands, or threats.
bulldozed the city council into approving the plan
bully implies intimidation through threats, insults, or aggressive behavior.
bullied into giving up their lunch money
browbeat implies a cowing through arrogant, scornful, or contemptuous treatment.
browbeat the witness into a contradiction
Examples of cow in a Sentence
Noun
The cows need to be milked twice a day. Verb
I refuse to be cowed by their threats.
a sharp glare cowed the child into being quiet
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Noun
There are more cows here than buildings, nothing but green grass and blue (or occasionally gray) skies to be seen.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
4 Aug. 2026 Under the Tolerance Induction Program, Julian was sent home with a strict protocol and took daily microdoses of various milks, starting with one with the fewest matching proteins to cow's milk.—ABC News,
3 Aug. 2026
Verb
What stood out was his confidence; Bouaddi was never cowed up against the experienced pairing of Bruno Guimaraes and Casemiro.—
Conor O'Neill,
New York Times,
22 July 2026 Refusing to be cowed, Sartre responded to Aron with his own book on Marx, the nine-hundred-page Critique of Dialectical Reason, in 1960.—Literary Hub,
21 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for cow
Word History
Etymology
Noun and Adjective
Middle English cou, from Old English cū; akin to Old High German kuo cow, Latin bos head of cattle, Greek bous, Sanskrit go
Verb
probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Danish kue to subdue
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
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