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cowstealer. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
cowstealer, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
cowstealer in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From cow + stealer.
Noun
cowstealer (plural cowstealers)
- (possibly obsolete) One who steals cattle.
1695, François Maximilien Misson, A New Voyage to Italy, page 15:They fixed his Skeleton to a Gibbet, upon that of an Oxe, because he had been a Cowstealer; they made Shoes of his Skin, and a Shirt of his Bowels.
- 1823, Mathew Carey, Vindiciae historicae: or Ireland vindicated, page 304, quoting Ormond:
- "They find it more honourable and safe to be king's evidence, than a cowstealer, though that be their natural profession."
1881, Folklore Society (Great Britain), Publications, page 248:A Cowstealer's Trick.—“Some cowstealers will make a hole in a hott lofe newly drawn out of the oven, and putt it on an oxe's horn for a convenient time, and then they can turn their softned hornes the contrary way, so that the owner cannot [identify them].
2005, David Dobson, More Scottish Settlers, 1667-1827, Genealogical Publishing Com, →ISBN, page 91:[…]
MCHWOIL, DONALD, a cowstealer, who was banished to the Plantations, at Inverness ...
See also