cowboys and indians

noun

Usage: usually capitalized I

: a children's game involving mock pursuits, gunfights, and killings as though between cowboys and Indians

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a children's game in which players imitate the supposed behavior of cowboys and Indians in conflict, as in shooting, chasing, and capturing.

[1885-90, Amer.]

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cowboys and Indians,

a children's game in which players enact a battle between Indians and cowboys. It is played sometimes in the form of tag, in which those that are “it” are the cowboys chasing the Indians to tag them.

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cowboys and Indians [cowboys and Indians] noun [U]

a children’s game in which some children pretend to be ↑cowboys and others pretend to be Indians (Native Americans). They have imaginary fights, sometimes wearing special clothes, based on what they have seen in ↑westerns

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The kids were playing cowboys and Indians in the back garden.