cousin

plural cousins

1. Chiefly with a qualifying word: Any relation (especially a distant one) who is not a direct ancestor or descendant but part of a person's extended family; a kinsman or kinswoman.

   Hovv novv brother, vvhere is my coſen your ſonne, hath he prouided this muſique?

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. […], quarto edition, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], signature B2, recto

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   Salute Andronicus⸝ and Junia my coſyns⸝ which were preſoners with me alſo⸝ which are wele taken amonge the apoſtles⸝ and were in Chriſt before me.

   1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Epistle off the Apostle Paul to the Romanes xvj:[7], folio ccxvj, verso

   Couſin Harlovve, ſaid my aunt Hervey, allovv me to ſay, That my couſin Clary's prudence may be confided in.

   1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter VI. Miss Clarissa Harlowe, to Miss Howe.”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume I, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, page 34

   The house and park and a small estate around it were entailed on a distant cousin, and could not be alienated; […]

   1826, Mary Russell Mitford, “The Old House at Aberleigh”, in Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery, volume II, London: Geo[rge] B[yrom] Whittaker, […], →OCLC, page 244

   1. specificallyPreceded by an ordinal number, as first, second, third, etc.: a person descended from a common ancestor by the same number of generations as another person.

      […] I never knevv the marriage of ſecond Coſens forbidden, but by them vvho at the ſame time forbad the marriage of the firſt: […] And vve find that Iſaac married his ſecond Coſen, and that vvas more for it then ever could be ſaid againſt it.

      1660, Jeremy Taylor, “Rule 3. The Judicial Law of Moses is Annul'd, or Abrogated, and Retains No Obliging Power either in Whole or in Part over any Christian Prince, Commonwealth, or Person.”, in Ductor Dubitantium, or the Rule of Conscience in All Her General Measures; […], volume I, London: […] James Flesher, for Richard Royston […], →OCLC, book II (Of the Rule of Conscience. […]), paragraph 89, page 318

   2. specificallyWhen used without a qualifying word: the child of a person's parent's brother (that is, an uncle) or sister (an aunt); a cousin-german, a first cousin.

      Although we were cousins, we grew up like sisters.

      3 more examples

      Cooſen Aumarle. / Hovv far brought you high Hereford on his vvay? / […] / VVhat ſaid our couſin vvhen you parted vvith him?

      1595 December 9 (first known performance), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedie of King Richard the Second. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Simmes for Androw Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signatures C2, recto – C2, verso

      [O]thers vvho are allied to us at a great diſtance, as the Children of Uncles, or of Coſens, or their Children or ſuch like, reſemble thoſe parts vvhich may be cut off vvithout pain, as Hair, Nailes, and the like.

      1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “Chap[ter] III An Explication of the Pythagorick Symbolls. By Jamblichus.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 4th part (Containing the Sceptick Sect), page 120

      Despite being related by blood and commonly in the same generation, cousins can end up with completely different upbringings, class backgrounds, values, and interests. And yet, they share something rare and invaluable: They know what it’s like to be part of the same particular family.

      2023 December 19, Faith Hill, “The Great Cousin Decline”, in The Atlantic

2. in pluralA person of an ethnicity or nationality regarded as closely related to someone of another ethnicity or nationality.

   [H]e had received such good accounts from the Upper Nez Percés of their cousins, the Lower Nez Percés, that he had become desirous of knowing them as friends and brothers.

   1837, Washington Irving, chapter VII, in The Rocky Mountains: Or, Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Far West; […], volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, page 75

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   Gusts of letters blow in from all corners of the British Isles. These are presently reinforced by Canada in full blast. A few weeks later the Anglo-Indians weigh in. In due course we have the help of our Australian cousins.

   1916 June, Max Beerbohm, “A. V. Laider”, in Seven Men, London: William Heinemann, published 1919, →OCLC, page 147

3. Used as a term of address for someone whom one is close to; also, (preceding a first name, sometimes capitalized as Cousin) a title for such a person.

   Marry quep, my cousin the weaver! And why the cucking-stool, I pray?—because my young lady is comely, and the young squire is a man of mettle, reverence to his beard that is yet to come?

   1825 June 22, [Walter Scott], chapter IX, in Tales of the Crusaders. […], volume I (The Betrothed), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 174

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   I aſſure you, my dirty Couſin! thof his Skin be ſo vvhite, and to be ſure, it is the moſt vvhiteſt that ever vvas ſeen, I am a Chriſtian as vvell as he, and no-body can ſay that I am baſe born, […]

   1749, Henry Fielding, “The Arrival of a Surgeon. His Operations, and a Long Dialogue between Sophia and Her Maid.”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 103

4. Used by a monarch to address another monarch, or a noble; specifically (UK) in commissions and writs by the Crown: used in this way to address a viscount or another peer of higher rank.

   Therefore vve meruaile much our Coſin France / VVould in ſo iuſt a buſineſſe, ſhut his boſome / Againſt our borrovving prayers.

   c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 241, column 1

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   My noble L[ords] and Coſens all, good morrovv, / I haue beene long a ſleeper, but I hope / My abſence doth neglect no great deſignes, / VVhich by my preſence might haue been concluded.

   c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], signature G, verso

   In all vvrits, and commiſſions, and other formal inſtruments, the king, vvhen he mentions any peer of the degree of an earl, alvvays ſtiles him "truſty and vvell beloved couſin:" an appellation as antient as the reign of Henry IV; vvho being either by his vvife, his mother, or his ſiſters, actually related or allied to every earl in the kingdom, artfully and conſtantly acknovvledged that connexion in all his letters and other public acts; from vvhence the uſage has deſcended to his ſucceſſors, though the reaſon has long ago failed.

   1765, William Blackstone, “Of the Civil State”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 386

5. alsoattributivefigurativelySomething kindred or related to something else; a relative.

   The euill habit of the body, is next coſin to the dropſie, […]

   1607, Conradus Gesnerus [i.e., Conrad Gessner]; Edward Topsell, “Of the Horsse”, in The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 385

   5 more examples

   Her dolour ſoone ſhe ceaſt, and on her dight / Her Helmet, to her Courſer mounting light: / Her former ſorrovv into ſuddein vvrath, / Both cooſen paſſions of diſtroubled ſpright, / Conuerting, forth ſhe beates the duſty path; / Loue and deſpight attonce her courage kindled hath.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 12, page 447

   [T]he friends that in one Couch did ſleep, / Each others blade in eithers breſt do ſteep: / And all the Camp vvith head-les dead is ſovven, / Cut-off by Cozen-ſvvords, kill'd by their ovvne.

   1608, [Guillaume de Salluste] Du Bartas, “[Du Bartas His Second Weeke, […]. Abraham. […].] The Captaines. The IIII. Part of the III. Day of the II. Week.”, in Josuah Sylvester, transl., Du Bartas His Deuine Weekes and Workes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Humfrey Lownes [and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson […]], published 1611, →OCLC, page 499

   Jerry Rawlings has pissed off not only the Company (the CIA) but its cousin (the Mossad) in the Middle East.

   1994, Joel Bainerman, “The Dark Side of the Israeli–American Relationship”, in Inside the Covert Operations of the CIA & Israel’s Mossad, New York, N.Y.: S.P.I. Books, →ISBN, page 18

   Partnering, along with its less irritating cousin "partnership", crops up all over the place, being equally useful to the lazy jargoneer and the lazy policy-maker. It has been said that there is no noun which cannot be verbed; in the same way, there is now nothing, concrete or abstract, which cannot be partnered.

   2003 November 21, Tim Homfray, “What do they mean …”, in Times Educational Supplement, London: TSL Education, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2023

   NASA has discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting around a star, which a NASA researcher called a "bigger, older cousin to Earth."

   2015 July 23, Tessa Berenson, “NASA Discovers New Earth-like Planet”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Mar 2023

6. obsoletecantA female sexual partner who is not a person's wife; specifically, a prostitute.

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   Viola Svvagger vvorſe then a Lieutenant among freſhvvater ſouldiers, call me your loue, your ingle, your coſen, or ſo; but ſiſter at no hand. / Fuſt[igo]. No, no, it ſhall be cozen, or rather cuz that's the gulling vvord betvveene the Cittizens vviues and their old dames, that man em to the garden; […] [W]hy ſiſter do you thinke I'le cunny-catch you, vvhen you are my cozen?

   1604 (date written), Tho[mas] Dekker, [Thomas Middleton], The Honest Whore. […] (4th quarto), London: […] Nicholas Okes for Robert Basse, […], published 1616, →OCLC, Act I, signatures B, verso – B2, recto

7. obsoletecantA person who is swindled; a dupe.

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   [I]f a plaine fellow well and cleanely apparelled, either in home-ſpun ruſſet or freeze (as the ſeaſon requires) with a five pouch at his girdle, happen to appeare in his ruſticall likenes: there is a Cozen ſaies one, At which word out flies the Taker, and thus giues the onſet vpon my olde Pennyfather.

   1608, [Thomas Dekker], “Of Barnards Law”, in The Belman of London. […], London: […] [Edward Allde and Nicholas Okes] for Nathaniel Butter, →OCLC, signature F, verso

   Synonyms: chump, chumpion, cull, cully, dupe, dotterel, easy mark, fall guy

8. obsoleterareA person who womanizes; a seducer, a womanizer.

   Those whom Venus is said to rule, […] Wenchers, Leachers, Shakers, Smockers, Cousins, Cullies, Stallions and Bellibumpers; […]

   1653, Francis Rabelais [i.e., François Rabelais], translated by [Thomas Urquhart, Peter Anthony Motteux], “Of the Disposition of the People this Year”, in The Works of Francis Rabelais, Doctor in Physick: Containing Five Books of the Lives, Heroick Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua, and His Sonne Pantagruel. […], London: […] [Thomas Ratcliffe and Edward Mottershead] for Richard Baddeley, […], →OCLC; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], [1948], →OCLC, 5th book, page 430

present singular third person cousins · participle present cousining · participle past cousined · past cousined

1. raretransitiveTo address (someone) as "cousin".

   [N]o, no, let me alone to cozen you rarely.

   1604 (date written), Tho[mas] Dekker, [Thomas Middleton], The Honest Whore. […] (4th quarto), London: […] Nicholas Okes for Robert Basse, […], published 1616, →OCLC, Act I, signature B, verso

   2 more examples

   At length she seemed to relent, or changed her tactics, for she looked over his shoulder as he sketched, and Cousined him two or three times as usual.

   1857 September, “A Winter in the South”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XV, number LXXXVIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 441–442

   Though he called Mrs. Merrit aunt, and cousined all her daughters, he was really no relative whatever. His father dying when he was a small boy, he had been kindly adopted by that father's step-brother, who had married into the Merritt family.

   1893, Fannie E[llsworth] Newberry, “Some of Beth’s Friends”, in The Odd One, Boston, Mass.: A. I. Bradley & Company, →OCLC, page 29

2. alsorarereflexivetransitiveTo regard (oneself or someone) as a cousin to another person.

   [T]he old gentleman took me into the house and introduced me to the family, where I was at once cousined by them all.

   1877 May 28, J[acob] Sam[ue]l Vandersloot, quoting Cyrus Sturdivant, “‘To God be All Praise’”, in The True Path; or, The Murphy Movement and Gospel Temperance. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: William Flint, […], published 1877, →OCLC, page 244

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   Mrs. M[uddlebrain]. […] Mary, who is this young man? / Mary. That's my cousin, ma'am, just stept in to lend us a helping hand in placing the things. / […] / Shuffle. What the devil did she say about a tall grenadier, and the pantry? Mrs. Shuffle! Mrs. Shuffle! / Mary. Hush! Are you mad? Do you want to tell all the world that we're married, and get me turned away? / Shuffle. No; but the grenadier? / Mary. Came to see the cook; so to prevent all the fat being in the fire, I cousined him, and made him a relation. / Shuffle. Yes; and remember you've cousined me too.

   1833, G. Herbert Rodwell, The Chimney Piece. A Farce, in One Act. […] (Miller’s Modern Acting Drama, […]; no. 5), London: John Miller, […], →OCLC, scene i, page 2

   [A] maiden well braced in nerve and muscle, / Far from sensual ease, to be mother of lustiest Britons, / Cousined to Romans in strength and in breadth of masterful Empire.

   1885 July, Scotigena Oxoniensis [pseudonym], “London. I. The Row and Westminster. Epistle to a Friend.”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CXXXVIII, number DCCCXXXVII, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood & Sons, […], →OCLC, page 135

   O Donald, thou wert the boy, / Steel to the bone, and like thee none! / Cousined wert thou to the great Clan Chattan, / Thou, the nodding cliff's foster son.

   1885 September, “The Old Owl of the Sron”, in [John Stuart] Blackie, transl., edited by Alexander Mackenzie, The Celtic Magazine: […], volume X, number CXIX, Inverness, Inverness-shire: A[lexander] & W. Mackenzie, […], →OCLC, page 522

   Let me say in the beginning that even if I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I am wived in Texas and mother-in-lawed and uncled and aunted and cousined within an inch of my life.

   1962 July, John Steinbeck, “Part 1”, in Travels with Charley in Search of America, London: William Heinemann, published 1962, →OCLC, page 201

3. USinformalintransitiveregionalTo associate with someone or something on a close basis.

   The UK has fiscal arithmetic cousined with that of Greece, but is dealing with it.

   2012, David Roche, Bob McKee, “The Moral Failure of Democracy”, in Democrisis: Democracy Caused the Debt Crisis. Will It Survive It?, [London]: Independent Strategy, →ISBN, pages 12–13

   2 more examples

   In an appendix to The Mechanic Muse, he [Hugh Kenner] finds Victorian symbolist practice serving to release the signifier from centuries of post-Enlightenment confusion about the proper wedding (or at least cousining) of word and thing.

   1999, Garrett Stewart, “Modernism and the Flicker Effect”, in Between Film and Screen: Modernism’s Photo Synthesis, Chicago, Ill.; London: University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 310

   [P]atients would escape into the town for a bit of a fling or "cousining" as it was called. "Cousining" was a Saranac Lake euphemism that applied to a couple, both of them patients and sometimes already married with a spouse living far away, who spent time together or dated each other.

   2007, Caperton Tissot, quoting Elise Chapin, “Some Offered Healing, Some Found Healing”, in Willem Tissot, editor, History between the Lines: Women’s Lives and Saranac Lake Customs, Jay, N.Y.: Graphics North, →ISBN, pages 110–111

4. USinformalintransitiveregionalTo visit a cousin or other relation.

   The pretty wren perches now in the Governor's house—a-cousining, a-cousining.

   1895, Gilbert Parker, “As Vain as Absalom”, in The Seats of the Mighty […], Toronto, Ont.: The Copp, Clark Company, published 1896, →OCLC, page 87

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   You know when you get up in the morning that you have a certain quantity of cousining to go through before the day is over, and you make up your mind to it; read a page of Seneca, add a verse to your litany, and commit yourself to Providence, like a wise man and a Christian.

   1836 July, “A Chapter on Cousins”, in Dublin University Magazine, volume VIII, number XLIII, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. and Company; London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., →OCLC, page 28, column 1

   Who then that has a cousin, has aught to say against cousining? We do indeed often her sneeringly the expression of "Dutch cousining" or "Yankee cousining," as if there was something mean in the act of visiting those who are "next of kin." To such as do it, I feel an unconquerable aversion or excessive pity; as they appear censorious or betray a stupidity that cannot feel a consanguine tie beyond their hearth.

   1845 October 20, B. C. True, “Cousining in Autumn”, in Thomas L. Harris, John Tanner, editors, The Gavel: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Odd Fellowship and General Literature, volume II, number 3, Albany, N.Y.: John Tanner, published November 1845, →OCLC, page 80

   It isn't the thing for a man to be like a stranger to his own flesh and blood. I'm going cousining, Sue, down East, and I'll hunt up my relations.

   1887 June, Herminius Cobb, “[The Household.] Mr. Blossom Visits His Relations.”, in The American Magazine: Supplement, volume I (New Series; volume VI overall), number 2, New York, N.Y.: The American Magazine Company, […]; London: The Christian Million Company, →OCLC, page 245, column 1

   In 1878 they were married in the Mormon Temple in St. George, 300 miles away, and he drove her back home in a hay wagon in eight days. They "cousined" (stopped with relatives) all the way.

   1959 January 5, “An 80th Wedding Anniversary”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 46, number 1, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 78

plural Cousins · alternative Couzen · alternative Couzens · alternative Cozen · alternative Cozens · alternative Cozin · alternative Cozins · alternative Cossin · alternative Cossins · alternative Cosin · alternative Cosins · alternative Cusin · alternative Cusins · alternative Cussin · alternative Cussins · alternative Cousins

1. A surname from Middle English.

plural Cousins

1. slanglifestyleA fan of the character Lucien LaCroix from the Canadian television series Forever Knight.

   of course, even a Cousin comme moi has to admit that GWD [Geraint Wyn Davies] can do the wicked hot vampire thing too, when given the opportunity...

   1998 November 16, ekarr@arctos.bowdoin.edu, “Lucroxua(sp).....Why is he so sexy?”, in alt.tv.forever-knight (Usenet), archived from the original on 27 Jan 2026

   2 more examples

   > Am I the only one in the world who's actually *rooting* for Nick > to bite somebody, lose all his humanity points, and start back at square > one? […] No, you're not the only one. Sounds to me like you're a Cousin.

   1995 February 16, Michelle D. Noel, “a question...”, in alt.tv.forever-knight (Usenet), archived from the original on 27 Jan 2026

   Oh man, now I'm just ranting, but hey, this is my computer, my internet (my phone line ;) and on top of all that, I am a COUSIN so I will rant a LITTLE about how one of my favorite vampires (next to Uncle, of course ;) meets my favorite British author :))))

   1998 November 19, MadiHolmes, “Blind Faith”, in alt.tv.forever-knight (Usenet), archived from the original on 27 Jan 2026