English edit

Etymology edit

From cow +‎ yard.

Noun edit

cowyard (plural cowyards)

  1. An enclosure for cows close by the farm.
    • 1864, John Hanning Speke, The Discovery of the Source of the Nile[1]:
      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[2]:
      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[3]:
      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.

Anagrams edit