cow·catch·er

(kou′kăch′ər, -kĕch′-)

A metal grille or frame projecting from the front of a locomotive and serving to clear the track of obstructions.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cowcatcher

(ˈkaʊˌkætʃə)

(Railways) US and Canadian a metal frame on the front of a locomotive to clear the track of animals or other obstructions

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cow•catch•er

(ˈkaʊˌkætʃ ər)

n.

a triangular frame at the front of a locomotive for clearing the track of obstructions.

[1830–40, Amer.]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

cowcatcher - an inclined metal frame at the front of a locomotive to clear the track

fender, buffer, pilot

framework - a structure supporting or containing something

locomotive, locomotive engine, railway locomotive, engine - a wheeled vehicle consisting of a self-propelled engine that is used to draw trains along railway tracks

Translations

cowcatcher

[ˈkaʊˌkætʃəʳ] N → rastrillo m delantero, quitapiedras m inv

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

And I never had much trouble with the Spiggoties, what of letting them sneak free rides in the tender or on the cowcatcher. Me throw them off?

"'If you try to get rides that way,' I slung at her in Spiggoty Spanish (which they tell me is some different from regular Spanish), 'you'll be taking one smeared all over our cowcatcher and headlight, and it'll be up to my fireman to scrape you off.'

And then I spotted her, crouched down right against the cowcatcher, that close I'd almost stepped on her.

View in context

119 and Central Pacific's Jupiter--that met cowcatcher to cowcatcher on May 10, 1869.

Remembering the Driving of the Golden Spike

In this modern time, I did simply what I had to: put myself in the path of the oncoming train, only to be pushed unceremoniously aside by the cowcatcher of progress and forced to watch from the gravel side as decisions about your life, death, and memory are made in the dining car, by people who neither know or understand you."

Sir John Franklin's Penelope

Sitting alongside the tram are its springloaded bolt collector, for connection to the overhead power lines, and "cowcatcher" bars, which would drop to the tracks to stop power in the event of an obstruction or accident.

Gang are bringing back to life a 1939 tram bought for PS1; RESTORATION MEN Summerlee museum

Car #1 in a four-car series, this decked-out circus train engine comes complete with whistle and cowcatcher! Customize it with some gold pinstriping to make your locomotive extra special.

Circus train engine

A train pulls slowly into the yard, the cowcatcher kicking up bits of trash and dead leaves.

Into Which the Breathing Descends

Can all parties involved be counted on to stand for what was agreed to when the poop hits the cowcatcher?

Responsibility and compliance: two sides of different coins

Hunter Welles (author); SOLOMON THE PEACEMAKER; Cowcatcher Press (Fiction: Science Fiction) 16.00 ISBN: 9780989762809

Solomon the Peacemaker

To connect with the morbid curiosity that rules his life, he crashes through the gates at Aristotle, jumps the tracks at Keats, hurtles through the flashing red lights at Coleridge Junction, derails Shakespeare and Poor Yorick on an isolated spur line, and scoops up Emily Dickinson in the cowcatcher and quotes her to death.

Gloomy gus goes to college