When it comes to colorful speech, the cowboy is a master at mixing simple images from nature with their own brand of slang. This hybrid language is an American classic and probably one of the reasons the cowboy is so warmly regarded as a true western original.
Part of the fun of this language is learning how to speak it for yourself, so
on the following pages we present a little cowboy dictionary to help you with your western education.
In addition to cowboy lingo we are including other classic old west terms that were used by miners, gamblers, outlaws and lawmen.
In the making of this fun dictionary it came to my attention that there are a lot of cowboy words for whiskey. I wonder what this could mean?
A-D E-H I-L M-P Q-T U-Z
this document has been split up into several pages and will be updated with new words from time to time so be sure and check back.
A
Ace in the hole: a hideout, a hidden gun
Acorn Calf: a weak runty calf
Adam’s Ale: water
Afeared: scared
Afterclaps: unexpected happenings after an event is supposed to be over.
Air in Lungs: cussin'
Airin' the Paunch: vomit, throw-up
All Hands & the Cook: phrase used when there is danger & every man is needed
All Horns and Rattles: fit of temper
Apple: saddle horn
Among the willows: dodging the law
Arkansas toothpick: a large knife
Auger: the big boss
Axle grease: butter
B
Backdoor Trots: diarrhea
Bad medicine: bad news
Bait: food
Bake: to overheat a horse
Baldface Dishes: china dishes
Ballyhoo: sales talk, advertising, exaggeration
Bandwagon: peddlers wagon
Banjo : a miners term for a short-handled shovel
Bar Dog: a bartender
Barefoot: an unshod horse
Bark: to scalp
Barking at a Knot: trying the impossible
Base Burner: a drink of whiskey
Bay: a horse of light red color
Bazoo: mouth
Bean Master: a camp cook
Bear Sign: doughnuts
Belly Cheater: a cook
Belly Robber: a cook
Belly Through the Brush: dodge the law
Belly Wash: weak coffee
Bending at the Elbow: drinking whiskey
Bible: cigarette papers
Big Jump: death
Big Pasture: the penitentiary
Big Sugar: ranch owner
Bill Show: Wild West show
Biscuit: saddle horn
Biscuit Roller: a cook
Black Spot: shade
Blind as a snubbing post: undiscerning
Black Water: coffee
Blue Belly: a Yankee
Blue Lightnin': a six-gun
Blue Whistler: bullet
Boggy Top: a pie with no top crust
Boil Over: a horse that starts bucking
Bone Orchard - cemetery
Boogered Up - crippled
Boston Dollar - a penny
Brain Tablet - a cigarette
Breaking the medicine - overcoming enemy's efforts to harm you.
Broken Wind: a lung infection in horses
Brown Gargle: coffee
Bug juice: whiskey
Bull Nurse: a cowboy
Bumblebee Whiskey: whiskey with a sting
Burn the Breeze: ride at full speed
Burro Milk - nonsense
Buscadero: a gunman
Burn the Breeze: ride full speed
C
Caboodle: the whole thing
Cahoots: partnership
Calf slobbers: meringue
California Collar: a hangman's noose
California Prayer Book: a deck of cards
Callin': courtin'
UnCan Openers: spurs
Cash in: to die
Choke Strap: a necktie
Chuck: food
Chuck Wagon Chicken: bacon
Clean his Plow: beat up in a fight
Cold Meat Wagon: a hearse
Cookie: camp cook
Corral Dust: Lies and tall tales
Cottonwood Blossom: a man lynched from the limb of a tree
Cowboy Cocktail: straight whiskey
Cow Salve: butter
Crawl his Hump: to start a fight
Crumb Castle: chuck wagon
Crumb Incubator: a cowboy's bed
Curry the Kinks Out: break a horse
Cut a Rusty: to go a courtin'
Cut his Suspenders: a departed cowboy
D
Desert Canary: a burro
Dice House: bunkhouse
Didn't Have a Tail Feather Left: broke
Diggers: spurs
Ditty: a which I ma call it
Dive: bunkhouse
Dough-Belly: cook
Dragging her rope: woman trying to catch a husband
Dream Book: cigarette papers
Dream Sack: sleeping bag
Dusted: thrown from a horse