cattle thief
2
6.7
- noun
- /ˈkætəl θif/
:
ladrón de ganado
- There were roughnecks and drunks, forgers and cattle thieves.
Examples
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Look, Bob, maybe Nuestro Señor... he no care very much what happens to a simple cattle thief.
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Cattle thieves.
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We are employing 50 men on the basis of five dollars a day... and $50 for every cattle thief shot or hung.
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There ain't nothin' out there but some old cattle thieves.
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Government officials usually referred to members of Sendero as "common delinquents" or "cattle thieves."
Academic text (1991) -
As it did elsewhere, the Shining Path initiated a moralization campaign in which it executed several cattle thieves and ordered local merchants to treat peasants fairly.
Academic text (1993) -
The first rondas were organized in the late 1970s in the northern department of Cajamarca by peasants frustrated by the lack of protection from cattle thieves and the corruption and abuses of the local police force.
Academic text (1991) -
The challenge boosters faced was to reinvent Hispanics as agricultural workers, rather than as rebels or cattle thieves, in terms that fixed them in both place and social structure as unthreatening to Anglo farmers.
Academic text (2009) -
He recalled that the unguarded horses presented "a golden opportunity for white horse and cattle thieves" and that a far greater number of the government herd was found to be missing than could be attributed to the hungry Indians (C. Eastman 1978: 117).
Academic text (1998) -
The ranch owner hired extra hands to watch for any cattle thieves in the area.
Synonyms
13
8.7
A person who steals cattle by moving them away from farms or ranches
1
9.9
A person who steals sheep and tricks other people
A person who takes sheep illegally to keep or sell them
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who steals cattle' is directly and compositionally derived from 'cattle' (livestock) + 'thief' (someone who steals). This noun–noun compound follows a regular, cross-linguistically common pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Cattle thief paints a simple picture: someone who sneaks out at night and drives away a farmer's cattle, acting like a thief. That's why it means 'a person who steals cattle or other livestock'.