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cowboy
(redirected from cowpuncher)

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.

cowboy

Horseman skilled at handling cattle in the U.S. West. From c. 1820, cowboys were employed in small numbers on Texas ranches, where they had learned the skills of the vaquero (Spanish: “cowboy”). After the Civil War, their numbers rapidly multiplied as cattle raising evolved into a lucrative industry throughout the western territories. Cowboys rounded up and branded the cattle, kept watch over the herd, and drove those ready for market to railroad towns. As the agricultural frontier moved west, the open range was transformed into farms, and by 1890 cowboys had been forced to settle on ranches. The romance of their image lived on in U.S. folklore and through movies and television.


cowboy - [Sun, from William Gibson's cyberpunk SF] Synonym for hacker. It is reported that at Sun this word is often said with reverence.

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They were intercepted by two local cowpunchers, who quietly advised them to leave well enough alone.
Ambivalence about his manifest destiny is evident even while he is repudiating his anointment as guru and claiming that he is "more a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper.
His careers included a stint in the Seventh Cavalry and work as a cowpuncher, newsstand clerk, pencil-sharpener salesman, and alderman (he skipped town three weeks after the election).
 
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