drugstore cowboy

drugstore cowboy

1. A young man who loiters in public places, such as on street corners or outside of drugstores, especially in the attempt to impress or woo young women. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. I hate going through this area, there's always a few drugstore cowboys cat-calling me when I pass by.
2. A person who dresses and acts like a cowboy but who has never worked as one and has none of a cowboy's skills or experience. Originally a reference to extras in Hollywood western films (who would remain in costume off set), it later extended to anyone who wears cowboy clothing purely for the purposes of style or affectation. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. The senator accused his challenger of being a drugstore cowboy—a city slicker who had no idea what it meant to live or work in the rural countryside.
3. One who sells, steals, and/or gets high on prescription or over-the-counter medications. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. Police apprehended a drugstore cowboy who held up a local pharmacy and made off with loads of prescription medication.
See also: cowboy
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

drugstore cowboy

n. a male who hangs around drugstores and other public places trying to impress women. You don’t see the old drugstore cowboys around this part of town anymore.
See also: cowboy
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

drugstore cowboy

A derisive phrase for a fashionably dressed man who loitered around public places trying to pick up women. The phrase, which may have originated with movie cowboys who wore their costumes when they broke for lunch, brings to mind the fashion plate's inability to ride anything more challenging than a drugstore counter stool.
See also: cowboy
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • cut (one's) teeth in (something)
  • cut your teeth on something
  • rent boy
  • sweet young thing
  • spring chicken
  • good die young
  • only the good die young
  • young blood
  • bright young thing
  • young
References in periodicals archive
Some are hardened, having learned to take care of themselves (Matt Dillon's character in "Drugstore Cowboy") or blessed with special talents that help them survive (Matt Damon's and Rob Brown's characters in "Good Will Hunting" and "Finding Forrester," respectively).
Gus Van Sant's compassion for troubled kids
I have the Independent Spirit award I won for Drugstore Cowboy in 1989 and some Brazilian records." Sounds like he needs a little shelf-analysis...
3am: Matt's shelf-life
As he had in his films before Idaho (such as 1989's Drugstore Cowboy) and in films since (such as last year's Elephant), Van Sant brings a level of poetry to his films in which the silence speaks as much, if not more, than the words.
Idaho at fifteen
Kay Bailey Hutchison, has decided to skip the race, Perry must still deal with an intra-party challenge from Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a feisty populist who has derided Perry as a "do-nothin' drugstore cowboy."
Religious right roundup: Texas governor holds bill signing at Fort Worth church school in bid to corral evangelical voters
But the Drugstore Cowboy Inc., which is the official name of the Gentlemen's Club, wants the city to butt out of its business.
Strip club strikes back
"THE TV BABY SHOT ME," GROANS MATT DILLON'S WOUNDED character at the end of Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy. I thought of this line while walking through the 2004 Whitney Biennial, the words brought to mind by the severe air of unreality to which the observation plainly speaks.
Editor's letter
movie actress and star of Drugstore Cowboy and Cocktail.
FROCK TACTICS; You don't need talent to find15 minutes of fame - just get your clothes off
His hand was the size of my head." At the premiere of Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy, to avoid the crush at the Varsity Cinemas, McKellar had Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch delivered to the loading dock.
Dead ringers: an excerpt from Brave films, wild nights: 25 years of festival fever
In fact, the White House inexplicably derided the Soviet leader as a "drugstore cowboy" and hinted that perestroika was a diabolical trick.
The Dawn of Cold War II
The Portland Area Theatre Alliance, with a membership of more than 40 theatres, declared Measure 9 had the potential to exclude "important plays, playwrights and artists from the stage." Gus Van Sant, who lives in Portland and films his movies (My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues) in Oregon, said that as a gay artist, he might be prevented from working in the state.
Artists out front in anti-9 battle
Van Sant, an independent North-westerner with a vivid sense of place, has previously dealt with self-destructive subcultures in his two, much praised earlier films, Mala Noche (1985) and Drugstore Cowboy (1989).
My Private Idaho
Compare the top military man with those, such as White House press spokesman Marlin Fitzwater, who consider the Soviet leader a "drugstore cowboy"-that is, a big phony.
Beltway bandits
He describes Van Sant's early development as a filmmaker and provides readings of all of his feature films, which notably include Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting, and Milk.
Gus Van Sant; his own private cinema