Cosby sweater

noun

An oversized sweater featuring a loud, kitschy pattern.

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Meanings

nounCosby sweater (plural Cosby sweaters)

plural Cosby sweaters · alternative Bill Cosby sweater

  1. An oversized sweater featuring a loud, kitschy pattern.

    A guy in a Cosby sweater lamented he didn't bring along some Trivial Pursuit cards.

    2013, Chris Rodell, Use All the Crayons!, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 20
    2 more examples

    I taste blood in my mouth while a Japanese gentleman in plastic snowshoes and a colorful Cosby sweater snaps photos of a landscape leveled by forest fires a decade ago.

    2006, Joe Kurmaskie, Momentum Is Your Friend: The Metal Cowboy and His Pint-Sized Posse Take on America, Breakaway Books, published 2011, →ISBN

    So hipsters, next time you're digging through the racks at the local thrift store for the perfect Cosby sweater for your annually unoriginal ugly Christmas sweater party, remember this…

    2012, Brad Getty, Dads Are the Original Hipsters, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 19

Origin

From the sweaters worn by the character Cliff Huxtable, played by Bill Cosby, on the American sitcom The Cosby Show (1984-1992).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Cosby sweater. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cosby%20sweater

MLA

“Cosby sweater.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cosby%20sweater. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Cosby sweater,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Cosby%20sweater.

Source: Cosby sweater on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.