cash cow

noun

1

: a consistently profitable business, property, or product whose profits are used to finance a company's investments in other areas

2

: one regarded or exploited as a reliable source of money

a singer deemed a cash cow for the record label

Examples of cash cow in a Sentence

The football team was a cash cow for the university.

The movie studio saw the actress as a cash cow.

Recent Examples on the Web

Developed at a high cost by Arista, Whitney Houston became the label’s cash cow in the ‘80s and ‘90s. —Chris Morris, Variety, 22 June 2026

Jobs originally saw hardware as Pixar’s potential cash cow. —Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 22 June 2026

Federal drug agents are trying to stop the FIFA World Cup from becoming a cash cow for drug dealers who hope to profit from the millions of domestic and international visitors headed to North Texas. —Marvin Hurst, CBS News, 20 June 2026

But companies that were once cash cows are depleting reserves and leveraging debt in their ambitious data center buildouts. —Kate Rooney, CNBC, 20 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1972, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for cash cow

• allow
• avow
• chiao
• endow
• eyebrow
• highbrow
• lanao
• meow
• powwow
• somehow
• anyhow
• carabao