Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to whip or beat; also in fig. use.

1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan I 193: I am only a boy, to be sure [...] but Jonathan Peters won’t cow me.
1836		Leeds Intelligencer 23 Apr. n.p.: Neither has Morpeth come ‘up to the scratch’; They’re only ‘half-bred’ and are easy to ‘cow’.
1855		T. Haliburton Nature and Human Nature II 198: I hope I may be cow-hided if I knew they had a ministry. I thought they only had a governor.
1870		E. Greey Queen’s Sailors III 2: He can cow the biggest roughs among them.
[1894		Mirror of Life 24 Nov. 15/3: She walked nervously up and down with a cowhide [whip] concealed in the folds of her dress].
1925		Black Mask Aug. III 27: I had cowed harder birds than this Jerome Ormond.
1932		M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 127: I’d leather you! I’d cow you, you dirty tramp.