cowflesh

English

Alternative forms

• cow-flesh, cow flesh

Etymology

From Middle English cowe flesh (also kowes flesche), equivalent to cow +‎ flesh. Compare German Kuhfleisch (“cow meat”), West Frisian kowefleis, Dutch koeievlees, koeienvlees.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

cowflesh (uncountable)

1. The meat or flesh of a cow; beef.
   • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 386:

     A monstrous fine bit of cowflesh! I'll be sworn she has rendezvoused you. What, you dog? Have you a way with them?

   • 2005, James Andrew Crutchfield, Paul Andrew Hutton, The way west: true stories of the American frontier:

     At first Maud, so afraid for her husband and baby, was unable to eat, but within a few days she tore into burnt cowflesh like any soldadera.

   • 2007, Rick Bass, The Lives of Rocks:

     We ferried our stock in U-Haul trailers, and across the months, as we purchased more cowflesh from the Goat Man — meat vanishing into the ether again and again, as if into some quarkish void — we became familiar enough with Sloat and his daughter to learn that her name was Flozelle, and to visit with them about matters other than stock.

Usage notes

• Used strictly to refer to the meat or flesh of a cow; rarely as a culinary term or item.

See also

• oxflesh