Definition of "cousin"

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.  quotations

1. (specifically) Preceded 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.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] 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 […], book II (Of the Rule of Conscience. […]), paragraph 89, page 318

2. (specifically) When 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.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, [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, “Chapter 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, […], 4th part (Containing the Sceptick Sect), page 120

(chiefly in the plural) A person of an ethnicity or nationality regarded as closely related to someone of another ethnicity or nationality.  quotations  examples

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.  quotations  examples

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

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

(obsolete)

1. (cant) A female sexual partner who is not a person's wife; specifically, a prostitute.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, Act I, signatures B, verso – B2, recto

2. (cant) A person who is swindled; a dupe.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [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, signature F, verso

3. (rare) A person who womanizes; a seducer, a womanizer.  quotations

   Quotations

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

     1653, François Rabelais, Thomas Urquhart and Peter Anthony Motteux, transl., “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, […]; republished in volume II, London: […] Navarre Society […], book the fifth, page 430

(transitive, rare)

1. To address (someone) as "cousin".  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • [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, Act I, signature B, verso

   • 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, […], 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, page 29

2. (also reflexive) To regard (oneself or someone) as a cousin to another person.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, […], scene i, page 2

   • [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, page 244

   • [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, […], 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, […], 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, John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published March 1968, page 201

(intransitive, chiefly US, informal or regional)

1. To associate with someone or something on a close basis.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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, 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.A noun use.

     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, pages 110–111

   • 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, pages 12–13

2. To visit a cousin or other relation.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.A noun use.

     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., 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.A noun use.

     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, 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, page 245, column 1

   • 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, page 87

   • 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., page 78