Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a cowboy; thus cowpunch v., to work as a cowboy; cow-punching n.

1878		in Colorado Mag. XVI (1939) 152: At Hugo the cow-punchers were assembling for the round-up [DA].
1882		W.A. Baillie-Grohman Camps in the Rockies 19: I happened to be left alone with the now good-humouredly satiated ‘cow-puncher’.
1885		Observer and Freelance (Wellington) 29 Aug. 9/3: What was that cow-puncher doing at the party?
1887		F. Francis Jr Saddle and Mocassin 149: The title, ‘cow servants,’ so delighted the gentle ‘puncher’. [Ibid.] 150: The cow-punchers know and like a gentleman.
1894		D.J. O’Malley ‘The Cowboy Wishes’ in Stock Grower’s Journal 7 Apr. 🌐 With a long rawhide reata / And a big Colt’s forty-five / I’ll be a model puncher / As sure as you’re alive.
1894		J. London Tramp Diary in Jack London On the Road (1979) 38: A couple of cowboys or cattle punchers are raising cain generally.
1894		Mirror of Life 26 May 14/2: He flatters himself that he is a genuine cow-puncher [...] but on the round-up he does the least.
1897		Oasis (Arizola, AZ) 26 June 6/1: Cattle are inquisitive and when they saw this rider on his wheel they wondered what kind of a cowpuncher he was.
1900		H. Garland Eagle’s Heart 194: I’m going to do a little cow-punchin’ for a man in Apache County.
1900		Marvel 8 Dec. 24: The elder had been brought up as a Texan ‘cow-puncher’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Apr. 3/5: Most of them [i.e. streets] were quite impassable this year, except to those bucolic cow-punchers.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 46: He wasn’t a puncher at all, and a polled Angus beef steer or a mild eyed Jersey were all the same to him.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘From Each According to his Ability’ Voice of the City (1915) 228: What was that cow-puncher’s name?
1911		Coosa River News (Centre, AL) 25 Aug. 3/2: He became ‘Poer Chip Charley’ for cow-punching purposes.
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 310: Both these boys would have made good cow-punchers in the old days.
1917		Denton (MD) Journal 6 Jan. 1/7: All I’m fit for is to hobnob with punchers.
1920		Capt. Billy’s Whiz Bang Oct. 29: This beautiful chateau [...] is the possession of an illiterate cow-puncher, whose salary is greater than the President’s.
1927		‘Max Brand’ Pleasant Jim 20: If somebody wanted an extra puncher in your off season, what would you work for?
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 144: Skinny, who had cowpunched and played yukon in Cheyenne.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 35: A cowboy is a ‘puncher’.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 41: I’m just an ordinary cowpunch.
1938		B. Conlon ‘Rope Meat’ Wild West Weekly 22 Oct. 🌐 The big yellow-haired puncher [...] was uncoiling a lariat from his saddle horn.
1939		Rover 18 Feb. 3: Out of the tent strode a tough-looking cowpuncher.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 152: Cowpunch, huh?
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 477: Bing Crosby Junior finishes fourteen quatrains of Amerindian folklore written by a cowpuncher from Hester Street.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 164: Homosexualism runs through every race and class of society of California, including husky cowpunchers.
c.1960		‘Jimmie Tucker’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 67: Signs pinned up on the bunk-house door, / ‘Punchers allowed at a quarter after four’.
1966		G. & K. Swarthout Whichaway (1967) 60: Twenty-five years ago, Beans was a dashing young cowpuncher.
a.1985		‘The Open Book’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 111: So me, I’m plumb soured on cowpunchers.
1999		Observer 31 Oct. 25: The cowhands (not cowpunchers, please) mutter an occasional ‘Come along, girls’.
2011		Intelligent Life Spring 125/1: I was more a cowpuncher than a Pied Piper.