Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a woman with dyed blonde hair.

1881		Courier-Jrnl (Louisville, KY) 6 Nov. 5/2: A St Louis ‘drug-store’ blonde the other day took her monthly bleach.
1905		F. Hutchison Philosophy of Johnny the Gent 10: I’ve seen a many a guy fall out wit’ his best friend over a kiddin’ match about some drug store blond.
1913		Evansville Press (IN) 17 July 5/5: The blonde voters of this country ought to get together and prevent any anti-blonde legislation. Even drugstore blondes should see their rights protected.
1940		Scribner’s Commentator 7:5 87: They've fixed her up like a Hollywood barber’s dream of a pip of a drugstore blonde.
1954		Rocks & Ruin 53: There was a bar along the far side of the room, and on it a drugstore blonde was sitting with her legs crossed singing to the accompaniment of the bartender's noisy cocktail shaker.
1967		R. Bissell Stretch on the River 34: A drugstore blonde, I bet. I don’t like blondes anyway.
2014		B.M. Bower Lookout Man [ebook] I kinda s'picion Marion bleaches her hair. Seems to me like it's a mite too yeller to be growed that way. Drugstore blonde, I'd call her.

(US) a man, usu. a youth, who frequents drugstores for no other reason than meeting his friends, gossiping and wasting time.

1923		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 33: Go home you big lummox — how dye expect to amount to anything hangin’ around that gang of drugstore cowboys.
1928		M. West Pleasure Man (1997) Act I: Listen, sister, you better grab the band and let the drugstore cowboy hit Main Street – the girls will be waiting for him, dearie.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 343: We might be able to make something out of it besides a dancing school for the drug store cowboys.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 55: There was the Brilliant Crowd, the Swishy Crowd [...] and the Drugstore Cowboys.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 43: Bell-bottom trousers so much in vogue with the drugstore cowboys of the day.
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 210: French drugstore cowboys and Norwegian artists and Swiss professors.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 74: A different kind o’ trouble from runnin’ around with the drugstore cowboys, but trouble all the same.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 5 Nov. in Proud Highway (1997) 409: They scorn shotgunners as dilettantes or drugstore cowboys.
1979		S. King Long Walk in Bachman Books (1995) 206: Parker was a bastard. Parker was a big drugstore cowboy and Saturday night tough guy.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 11: They’d lean sideways against the bar, drugstore-cowboy-style.
1999		Guardian Rev. 18 June 13: He is now sick of the canonisation of the ultimate drugstore cowboy.
2004		J. Guidry Cowboy Dance 14: Well, if you’re done playing drugstore cowboy for awhile, I could give you some real work to do.

(US drugs) a drug addict addicted to painkillers or synthetic opiates, available from drugstores and considered lightweight by heroin addicts.

1969

Cressey & Ward Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process 824: Those who use pills on a repetitive or continuous basis are viewed as ‘drug store hyps’ or ‘pill freaks’ by heroin addicts.

(US drugs) painkillers, synthetic opiates, available from drugstores but less effective than heroin.

1968

‘Sl. of Watts’ in Current Sl. III:2.