cost
/kɒst/ verb, noun, proper noun
- verb (transitive, ditransitive) To incur a charge of; to require payment of a (specified) price. “This shirt cost $50, while this was cheaper at only $30.”
- verb (transitive, ditransitive) To cause something to be lost; to cause the expenditure or relinquishment of. “Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives.”
- verb To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
- verb To calculate or estimate a price. “I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.”
- verb (transitive, colloquial) To cost (a person) a great deal of money or suffering. “I can give you the names, but it'll cost you.”
- noun Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used. “The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.”
- noun A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur. “Spending all your time working may earn you a lot of money at the cost of your health.”
- noun (obsolete) Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
- noun Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
- noun (obsolete) A rib; a side.
- noun (heraldry) A cottise.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster (“to cost”), from Medieval Latin cōstō, from Latin cōnstō (“stand together”).
From Middle English cost, coust, from costen (“to cost”), from the same source as above.
From Middle English cost, from Old English cost (“option, choice, possibility, manner, way, condition”), from Old Norse kostr (“choice, opportunity, chance, condition, state, quality”), from Proto-Germanic *kustuz (“choice, trial”) (or Proto-Germanic *kustiz (“choice, trial”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵéwstus (“to enjoy, taste”).
Cognate with Icelandic kostur, German dialectal Kust (“taste, flavour”), Dutch kust (“choice, choosing”), North Frisian kest (“choice, estimation, virtue”), West Frisian kêst (“article of law, statute”), Old English cyst (“free-will, choice, election, the best of anything, the choicest, picked host, moral excellence, virtue, goodness, generosity, munificence”), Latin gustus (“taste”). Related to choose. Doublet of gusto.
From Middle English coste, from Old French coste, from Latin costa. Doublet of coast and cuesta.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A rib; a side; a region or coast. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.
- noun See Cottise.
- verb To require to be given, expended, or laid out therefor, as in barter, purchase, acquisition, etc.; to cause the cost, expenditure, relinquishment, or loss of; as, the ticket cost a dollar; the effort cost his life.
- verb To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
Etymology [L. costa rib. See Coast.]
Etymology [OF. coster, couster, F. co, fr. L. constare to stand at, to cost; con- + stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Constant.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cost”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details