cowyard

English

Etymology

From cow +‎ yard.

Noun

cowyard (plural cowyards)

1. An enclosure for cows close by the farm buildings.

   Hypernyms: yard < enclosure < area; place

   Coordinate terms: (yards for livestock) pigyard, swineyard, sheepyard, henyard, horse-yard; (places for cows) paddock, pasture; byre, cowshed, cowhouse, cowbarn

   • 1864, John Hanning Speke, The Discovery of the Source of the Nile‎:

     On entering the palace we were shown into a cowyard without a tree in it, or any shade; and no one was allowed to sell us food until a present of friendship was paid, after which the hongo would be discussed.

   • 1898, Eden Phillpotts, Children of the Mist‎:

     Behind a cowyard of shattered stone pavement and cracked mud stood the farm itself, and around it extended the fields belonging thereto.

   • 1912, Walter W. Skeat, English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day‎:

     There were no pigeons in the pigeon-house, and nothing but jack-daws; and so, after she had burned the beam, and the door-frame and the floor, she ran into the cowyard, through the small field, and fainted behind several pitchers of yeast.

Related terms

• barnyard

Anagrams

• cowardy