cow chips

plural noun

1. dried cow dung used especially for fuel by early settlers, explorers, etc., in the American West.

Word History and Origins

Origin of cow chips¹

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

We sat around a fire built with dry cow chips and told stories while shaking out grain from ears of corn.

From Literature

After all, he’d never had any coaching growing up, but he organized games for the 12 siblings on the family farm, where they used cow chips for bases.

From Washington Times

Valley-area bovines chow down on peelings and cooked chips that aren’t quite up to snuff — yes, they call them cow chips.

From Washington Post

The fuel with which to prepare this food was, for most of them, hay, or in summer cow chips, and later on, when they began to raise corn, corn cobs.

From Project Gutenberg

The fuel had given out, as we had feared—cow chips and all.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• compost
• droppings
• dung
• excrement
• mulch