as in cowhands
a hired hand who tends cattle or horses at a ranch or on the range
cowboys were rounding up the cattle for branding
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Recent Examples of cowboys
Learning about cowboys while walking through a cemetery is the best preparation apparently!
—
Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 31 Aug. 2025
The Cuckoo’s Nest/Zubie’s parking lot in Costa Mesa became ground zero for clashes between punks and cowboys.
—Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 31 Aug. 2025
Once notorious for gamblers and cowboys, today Whiskey Row is lined with bars, shops and art galleries.
—Tiffany Acosta, AZCentral.com, 27 Aug. 2025
The two men secured a patent for the design (note the miner and his pickaxe), soon founding a company to sell the pants and hawking them to miners and cowboys who wanted clothing that could handle wear and tear.
—Stephen Mihm, Twin Cities, 22 Aug. 2025
Lets give one more round of applause for all the cowboys and cowgirls who competed out there tonight.
—Melonee Hurt, The Tennessean, 21 Aug. 2025
The city of Dallas is a minority-majority, and this performance put the limelight on those cowboys and brought that history to life.
—Meredith Nierman, NPR, 19 Aug. 2025
Among the competitors were cowboys, a Roman centurion, and a guy drinking a beer in a moving lawnchair.
—Andy Frye, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2025
There are cowboys like Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser), the good-natured ranch hand who teams up with Penny Jo, and Native Americans like Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), who runs a militant organization in the tradition of the American Indian Movement.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
Lexy Perez, HollywoodReporter, 31 Aug. 2025
The Cuckoo’s Nest/Zubie’s parking lot in Costa Mesa became ground zero for clashes between punks and cowboys.
—Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 31 Aug. 2025
Once notorious for gamblers and cowboys, today Whiskey Row is lined with bars, shops and art galleries.
—Tiffany Acosta, AZCentral.com, 27 Aug. 2025
The two men secured a patent for the design (note the miner and his pickaxe), soon founding a company to sell the pants and hawking them to miners and cowboys who wanted clothing that could handle wear and tear.
—Stephen Mihm, Twin Cities, 22 Aug. 2025
Lets give one more round of applause for all the cowboys and cowgirls who competed out there tonight.
—Melonee Hurt, The Tennessean, 21 Aug. 2025
The city of Dallas is a minority-majority, and this performance put the limelight on those cowboys and brought that history to life.
—Meredith Nierman, NPR, 19 Aug. 2025
Among the competitors were cowboys, a Roman centurion, and a guy drinking a beer in a moving lawnchair.
—Andy Frye, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2025
There are cowboys like Lefty Ledbetter (Paul Walter Hauser), the good-natured ranch hand who teams up with Penny Jo, and Native Americans like Ghost Eye (Zahn McClarnon), who runs a militant organization in the tradition of the American Indian Movement.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cowboys
cowhands
Noun
-
There are plenty of places to take a horse, with experienced cowhands to guide the way.—
Jenny Peters,
Oc Register,
9 Sep. 2025
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Now, the ranch is proactively using drones equipped with speakers and bright lights as stand-in cowhands, WSJ reported.—
Rachel Raposas,
People.com,
5 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cowboys.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cowboys. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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