# cousins

Pronunciation: say "KUZ-uhnz" US /ˈkʌz(ə)ns/, UK /ˈkʌzn̩s/

## Noun

1. Plural of cousin. — plural of cousin
   - Simple: Plural of cousin. Use this when you mean more than one cousin.
   - _Her cousins traveled from three different states for the wedding._
   - _The two cousins hadn't seen each other since childhood._
3. The American intelligence agencies from a British point of view, or the British intelligence agencies from an American point of view. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A close ally's spy services across the Atlantic: British ones to Americans, or American ones to the British.
   - _London passed the intercepts to the cousins before the operation went ahead._
   - _The cousins shared satellite imagery with British agents throughout the crisis._

## Verb

2. Third-person singular simple present of cousin. — third-person singular simple present indicative of cousin
   - Simple: The form of cousin used in the present with he, she, it, or a singular noun such as the dog or water.

## Origin

This is the plural form of "cousin," made with the suffix -s. The plural sense meaning "American or British intelligence services" was popularized in the works of the English author John le Carré (1930–2020).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cousins (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).