herdsman

noun

herds·​man ˈhərdz-mən How to pronounce herdsman (audio)
1
: a manager, breeder, or tender of livestock
2
capitalized : boötes

Examples of herdsman in a Sentence

a lone herdsman stood with his sheep and his dog on the hillside
Recent Examples on the Web While this constellation isn’t formally recognized anymore, the Quadrantids’ meteors now seemingly emanate from the northern part of the constellation Boötes, the herdsman. Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Jan. 2024 Outside, cattle graze across the rolling hills and the voices of herdsmen are a distant soundtrack. Nokukhanya Musi, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Aug. 2023 Taiping, a former herdsman, now runs his own jerky factory and has more than one million followers. Vivian Wang, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2023 The elderly herdsman walks, with his donkey, to visit the residents of a distant wooden house; villagers are gathered at a church service; spelunkers meet by night and pore over what looks like maps—not in absolute silence but from a distance that renders their few murmurs of talk indistinct. Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 11 May 2022 The kite rising sideways in the east is from Boötes the herdsman. Corey S Powell, Discover Magazine, 27 Mar. 2014 In the Qinghai Province of China in 2009, 12 people were infected after a herdsman was exposed to plague from a sick dog. Rebecca Kreston, Discover Magazine, 29 Oct. 2013 In 1869 a Griqua herdsman discovered an 83.5-carat rough diamond by the Orange River in Cape Colony, South Africa. Dominic Green, WSJ, 20 Dec. 2022 Their secret leaked the first weekend in June when the other herdsman, Happy Mthabela, showed some of the stones to guests at a wedding. New York Times, 4 July 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'herdsman.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1567, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of herdsman was in 1567

Dictionary Entries Near herdsman

Cite this Entry

“Herdsman.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/herdsman. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

herdsman

noun
herds·​man ˈhərdz-mən How to pronounce herdsman (audio)
: a manager, breeder, or tender of livestock

More from Merriam-Webster on herdsman

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!