cow

«cow» in Mova's school dictionary: a big farm animal that gives milk and says «moo» — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (cow, cows); verb (cow — to frighten, rare)

meaning for a pupil

1) A cow is a big farm animal that gives milk and says «moo». tree →

2) A cow is the female of cattle; the male is a bull and the baby is a calf. tree →

3) Female elephants and whales are also called cows. tree →

sense in the lessons

maths: animals counted on a farm, with legs (4 each), milk in liters or gallons, and food to eat (a rate per cow); science: cows eat grass and chew the cud; mammals feed milk to their young; everyday life: milk, cheese and butter come from cows; stories: farms, nursery rhymes

examples

• The farmer has 12 cows. tree →
• Each cow gives 8 liters of milk a day. tree →
• How many legs do 5 cows have? tree →
• There are 3 more cows than horses. tree →
• The cow says moo. tree →
• The cow and her calf stood in the field. tree →
• Cows eat grass all day. tree →
• We get milk from cows. tree →
• ‘What! haven’t you got a cow?’ tree →

note

Thing counted; often with a rate per cow (milk, food). Trap: legs problems need 4 per cow but 2 per chicken. Plural: cows (old word: cattle for a herd).

In the corpora

• A cow wraps its long rough tongue round grass because it has no top front teeth, only a hard pad.
• A cow's stomach has four parts, and it chews its food twice, bringing it back up as cud.
• More Australians are hurt by horses, cows and bees than by snakes or spiders.
• Dugongs are sea cows that graze on sea grass, and sailors long ago may have mistaken dugongs and manatees for mermaids.
• Hedgehogs must never be given cow's milk, which upsets their stomachs; water is best.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «cow» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.