cousin

Less common meanings

5. 5
   royal addressnouncountable

   A form of address used by a monarch to another monarch or a noble; in British royal writs, used to address a viscount or peer of higher rank.

   "To our well-beloved cousin, the Earl of March, greetings," the royal commission began.

   Sealing the alliance, the queen addressed the foreign king simply as cousin.

   Note

   Royal protocol turned kinship into rank. William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765) records that in writs and commissions the king styles a peer of an earl's degree "trusty and well beloved cousin." Blackstone dates the form to the reign of Henry IV. Between sovereigns it named a fellow ruler, as when the Duke of Florence in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well calls the French king "our Cousin France." Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • William Blackstone wrote Commentaries on the Laws of England; its first book was first published in 1765. gutenberg.org
   • The first-edition title page dates Book I to 1765. gutenberg.org
   • Blackstone records the king's use of this address for an earl in writs and commissions. gutenberg.org
   • Blackstone dates the appellation to Henry IV's reign. gutenberg.org
   • In Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, the Duke of Florence refers to the French king as his cousin. folger.edu
6. 6
   visit kinverbdatedintransitive

   To pay a visit to a cousin or other relative.

   Each Christmas break we went cousining across three counties, sleeping wherever a relative had a spare bed.

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

   1895, Gilbert Parker, “As Vain as Absalom”

   Similarvisit

   Note

   Visiting kin as a social round, usually in the -ing form: going cousining, a-cousining, or a certain quantity of cousining to get through. This informal, mostly 19th-century word has long drawn mild mockery. B. C. True's "Cousining in Autumn" (1845) defends it against sneers at "Dutch cousining" and "Yankee cousining," as if there were something mean in visiting one's next of kin. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The visiting sense occurs in the forms going cousining, a-cousining, and a quantity of cousining. en.wiktionary.org
   • B. C. True wrote Cousining in Autumn, published in 1845. en.wiktionary.org
   • True defends cousining against the quoted sneers, showing that such visits had attracted mockery. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   verbrareintransitive

   To be on close, familiar terms with someone or something.

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

   2012, David Roche, Bob McKee

   Similarassociate, fraternize, hobnob, mix

   Note

   A loose, mostly literary extension of the kinship idea, usually followed by with, as in fiscal arithmetic "cousined with that of Greece." Among patients at Saranac Lake, cousining was a local euphemism for a fling between two patients, sometimes ones married to spouses far away. The word can therefore carry a wink. Use it informally, and expect some readers to hear the double meaning. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • The quoted phrase occurs in a discussion of fiscal arithmetic. quantumstrategy.blob.core.windows.net
   • At Saranac Lake, cousining described romantic involvement between patients, sometimes already married to absent spouses. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   verbraretransitive

   To call someone 'cousin', or to treat or claim them as a cousin.

   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, “A Winter in the South”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine

   Note

   A rare verb with regular forms, cousined and cousining, meaning simply to use the word as a greeting. It need not imply real kinship. Fannie Newberry's The Odd One (1893) has a boy who "cousined all her daughters" though he was no relative at all. Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1857 even capitalizes it, writing "Cousined him," as if quoting the title. It can also mean counting someone as kin. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

   • The verb has the regular forms cousined and cousining. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Odd One is by Fannie E. Newberry and was first published in 1893. openlibrary.org
   • The novel's narrator describes a boy who cousined the daughters despite having no actual kinship. en.wiktionary.org
   • Harper's New Monthly Magazine printed the capitalized wording Cousined him in 1857. en.wiktionary.org
   • The verb can mean regarding someone as a cousin. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   nounobsolete

   A female sexual partner other than a man's wife; specifically, a prostitute.

   Note

   Thieves' cant, long obsolete, in which a kinship word gave cover to a mistress or a prostitute. In Dekker and Middleton's The Honest Whore (1604), a woman accepts being called "your loue, your ingle, your cosen" but never sister. The reply spells it cozen and calls cuz "the gulling word." That is the same underworld vocabulary that names the swindler's mark. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • The sexual sense is cant, using a kinship term for a mistress or prostitute. en.wiktionary.org
   • Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton wrote The Honest Whore, Part 1. digitalrenaissance.uvic.ca
   • The play was first published in 1604. gutenberg.org
   • Viola tells Fustigo to call her his love, ingle or cousin, but not sister; the quoted spelling occurs in the 1616 quarto. en.wiktionary.org
   • Fustigo's reply uses cozen and cuz and calls the latter the gulling word; these spellings occur in the 1616 quarto. en.wiktionary.org
   • The sexual sense and the swindler's victim sense both belong to cant vocabulary. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    nounobsolete

    A person who is swindled or deceived; a dupe.

    Similarsucker, dupe, mark, mug, gull

    Note

    A cheater's word for the mark. Thomas Dekker's The Belman of London (1608) shows a gang watching for a plain countryman in homespun with a pouch at his girdle, then crying "there is a Cozen." The cozen spelling and the pun on cheating link it to the slang word for a mistress. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Cousin was cant for a person being swindled. en.wiktionary.org
    • Thomas Dekker wrote The Belman of London, published in 1608. en.wikipedia.org
    • The work describes swindlers identifying a plainly dressed countryman wearing homespun and carrying a pouch at his girdle. en.wiktionary.org
    • One of the swindlers says the exact quoted words. archive.org
    • The cozen spelling and cheating wordplay also occur in connection with the sexual-partner sense. gutenberg.org
11. 11
    nounobsolete

    A man who pursues and seduces many women; a womanizer.

    Note

    A rare, obsolete jest rather than a working word. It turns up in the old Urquhart and Motteux translation of Rabelais, where cousins appear in a comic roll call of rakes alongside wenchers, leachers, cullies and stallions. The list itself does the defining. A modern writer reaching for it would simply be read as meaning a relative. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The womanizer sense is rare and obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
    • Urquhart and Motteux are credited as translators of Rabelais. gutenberg.org
    • The translation includes cousins in a list alongside wenchers, leachers, cullies and stallions. en.wiktionary.org