cowhouse

English

Alternative forms

• cow-house, cow house

Etymology

From Middle English cowhous, cowehous, equivalent to cow +‎ house.

Noun

cowhouse (plural cowhouses)

1. A house (barn or shed) for keeping cows.

   Synonyms: byre, cowbarn, cowshed

   Hypernyms: barn, house, outbuilding

   Coordinate terms: henhouse, hoghouse, horsebarn

   • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 138:

     A colony of Elves had taken up their abode under the floor of the cowhouse, or, it is more likely, were there before it was made a cowhouse.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 42:

     When he had churned some time he recollected that the cow, which they kept at home, hadn't been let out of the cow-house, and hadn't had a straw of hay or anything to drink, although it was late in the day.