cowcatcher
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈkaʊˌkætʃər/
- Archaic
:
parachoques
- The coupler at the front of the cowcatcher had actually pierced the metal of the automobile and protruded like a shining silver eye.
- front of the cowcatcher
Examples
-
Pipeline and Plissken push off from the canyon floor just as the water shovels them upward like a cowcatcher on a train.
Fiction book (1996) -
The cowcatcher in front pushes aside the halved Evil Dead.
Fiction book (1992) -
Cowcatcher, right?
-
Now any kid who grew up in Butte knew how to hop a ride on the cowcatcher or the dead woods under the boxcars.
Fiction book (1990) -
His teeth were now a train cowcatcher, his eyes two tar-pit traps, and his drool a waterfall.
Fiction book (2000) -
In the early morning darkness, the smoke billowing out of the train's smokestack looked blue, and the light above the engine's cowcatcher made the tracks in front glisten like parallel ribbons of silver in the distance.
Fiction book (2001) -
Once, at a railroad crossing, Fenton sat in an open convertible with friends as his uncle drifted past the windshield in his oily overalls, standing on the cowcatcher of the engine.
Fiction book (1999) -
The locomotive's cowcatcher cleared debris from the tracks, ensuring the train could pass safely.
-
As the train approached, the cowcatcher pushed aside fallen branches and leaves that cluttered the railway.
-
In the event of an obstruction, the cowcatcher on the front of the engine is designed to remove any obstacles.
Synonyms
25
3.9
A panel on a vehicle, like a car, that covers the wheel to protect it from damage
11
9.0
An angled metal frame on the front of a train that clears obstacles
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Cowcatcher comes from the parts cow and catcher, because early trains had a metal frame on the front to 'catch' or push cows and other animals off the track. So a cowcatcher today is the angled metal part on the front of a train that clears obstacles from the tracks.