Cousin

Quick meaning: Cousin is a noun meaning (figurative, also attributive) Something kindred or related to something else; a relative.

Meaning

(figurative, also attributive) Something kindred or related to something else; a relative.

More Meanings

1. A female sexual partner who is not a person's wife; specifically, a prostitute.
2. A person who is swindled; a dupe.
3. A person who womanizes; a seducer, a womanizer.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Used by a monarch to address another monarch, or a noble; specifically (British) in commissions and writs by the Crown: used in this way to address a viscount or another peer of higher rank.
7. (chiefly in the plural) A person of an ethnicity or nationality regarded as closely related to someone of another ethnicity or nationality.

Example Sentences

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

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

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

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.

Word Forms

• cousins
• cousining
• cousined

Synonyms for cousin

Depending on context, synonyms include chump, chumpion, cull, cully, dupe, dotterel.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include cousin-german, nephew, kinsman, brother, coz, cous.

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