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Webster 1913 Edition

Cost

Cost

(kŏst; 115)
,
Noun.
[L.
costa
rib. See
Coast
.]
1.
A rib; a side; a region or coast.
[Obs.]
Piers Plowman.
Betwixt the
costs
of a ship.
B. Jonson.
2.
(Her.)
See
Cottise
.

Cost

(kŏst; 115)
,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Cost
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Costing
.]
[OF.
coster
,
couster
, F.
coûter
, fr. L.
constare
to stand at, to cost;
con-
+
stare
to stand. See
Stand
, and cf.
Constant
.]
1.
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
.
A diamond gone,
cost
me two thousand ducats.
Shakespeare
Though it
cost
me ten nights’ watchings.
Shakespeare
2.
To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
To do him wanton rites, which
cost
them woe.
Milton.
To cost dear
,
to require or occasion a large outlay of money, or much labor, self-denial, suffering, etc.

Cost

,
Noun.
[OF.
cost
, F.
coût
. See
Cost
,
Verb.
T.
]
1.
The amount paid, charged, or engaged to be paid, for anything bought or taken in barter; charge; expense; hence, whatever, as labor, self-denial, suffering, etc., is requisite to secure benefit.
One day shall crown the alliance on 't so please you,
Here at my house, and at my proper
cost
.
Shakespeare
At less
cost
of life than is often expended in a skirmish, [Charles V.] saved Europe from invasion.
Prescott.
2.
Loss of any kind; detriment; pain; suffering.
I know thy trains,
Though dearly to my
cost
, thy gins and toils.
Milton.
3.
pl.
(Law)
Expenses incurred in litigation.
☞ Costs in actions or suits are either between attorney and client, being what are payable in every case to the attorney or counsel by his client whether he ultimately succeed or not, or between party and party, being those which the law gives, or the court in its discretion decrees, to the prevailing, against the losing, party.
Bill of costs
.
See under
Bill
.
–
Cost free
,
without outlay or expense.
“Her duties being to talk French, and her privileges to live cost free and to gather scraps of knowledge.”
Thackeray.

Webster 1828 Edition

Cost

COST

,
Noun.
[See the Verb.]
1.
The price, value or equivalent of a thing purchased; the amount in value paid, charge or engaged to be paid for any thing bought or taken in barter. The word is equally applicable to the price in money or commodities; as the cost of a suit of clothes; the cost of a house or farm.
2.
Expense; amount in value expended or to be expended; charge; that which is given or to be given for another thing.
I will not offer burnt offerings without cost. 1 Chronicles 21.
Have we eaten at all at the kings cost? 2 Samuel 19.
The cost of maintaining armies is immense and often ruinous.
3.
In law, the sum fixed by law or allowed by the court for charges of a suit awarded against the party losing, in favor of the party prevailing, &c. The jury find that the plaintiff recover of the defendant ten dollars with costs of suit or with his cost.
4.
Loss or expense of any kind; detriment; pain; suffering. The vicious man indulges his propensities at a great cost.
5.
Sumptuousness; great expense.

COST

,
Verb.
T.
[The noun cost coincides in most of these languages with coast and L. Costa, a rib, the exterior part. The primary sense of the verb is, to throw or send out, to cast, as we say, to lay out. I call this a transitive verb. In the phrase, a hat costs six dollars, the sense is, it expends, lays out, or causes to be laid out six dollars.]
1.
To require to be given or expend in barter or purchase; to be bought for; as, this book cost a dollar; the army and navy cost four millions a year.
2.
To require to be laid out, given, bestowed or employed; as, Johnsons dictionary_webster1828 cost him seven years labor.
3.
To require to be borne or suffered. Our sins cost us many pains. A sense of ingratitude to his maker costs the penitent sinner many pangs and sorrows.

Definition 2024

cost

cost

English

Noun

cost ‎(plural costs)

  1. Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.
    • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
      According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.
    The total cost of the new complex was an estimated $1.5 million.‎
    We have to cut costs if we want to avoid bankruptcy.‎
    The average cost of a new house is twice as much as it was 20 years ago.‎
  2. A negative consequence or loss that occurs or is required to occur.
    There were many costs to the development project, the least of all was the financial aspect.‎
    If you train all the time, there will be a few costs such as a lack of free time.‎
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English costen, from Old French coster, couster ‎(“to cost”), from Medieval Latin costare, from Latin constare ‎(“stand together, stand at, cost”), from com- + stare ‎(“stand”).

Verb

cost ‎(third-person singular simple present costs, present participle costing, simple past and past participle cost or costed) See Usage notes.

  1. To incur a charge; to require payment of a price.
    This shirt cost $50, while this was cheaper at only $30.‎
    It will cost you a lot of money to take a trip around the world.‎
    • 1915, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger, chapter I:
      Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].
  2. 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.‎
  3. To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
    • John Milton (1608-1674)
      to do him wanton rites, which cost them woe
    • Star Wars (1977)
      LUKE: "That little droid is going to cost me a lot of trouble."
  4. To calculate or estimate a price.
    I'd cost the repair work at a few thousand.‎
Usage notes

The past tense and past participle is cost in the sense of "this computer cost me £600", but costed in the sense of 'calculated', "the project was costed at $1 million."

Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

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.

Noun

cost ‎(plural costs)

  1. (obsolete) Manner; way; means; available course; contrivance.
    • Pecock
      This word "graved image" betokenneth, needs cost,.. a feigned graved image.
  2. Quality; condition; property; value; worth; a wont or habit; disposition; nature; kind; characteristic.
Derived terms
Related terms

Etymology 4

From Old French coste from Latin costa.

Noun

cost ‎(plural costs)

  1. (obsolete) A rib; a side.
    • Ben Jonson
      betwixt the costs of a ship
  2. (heraldry) A cottise.

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: week · stone · tree · #781: cost · value · cast · speaking

Anagrams

Catalan

Noun

cost m ‎(plural costs or costos)

  1. cost

Related terms

Manx

Noun

cost m ‎(genitive singular cost, plural costyn)

  1. charge (monetary)

Derived terms

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *kust-, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵews- ‎(“to choose”). Akin to Old Saxon kostōn ‎(“to try, tempt”), Old High German kostōn ‎(“to taste, test, try by tasting”) (German kosten), Icelandic kosta ‎(“to try, tempt”), Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌿𐍃 ‎(kustus, “test”), Old English cystan ‎(“to spend, get the value of, procure”), Old English cyst ‎(“proof, test, trial; choice”), ċēosan ‎(“to choose”).

Pronunciation

Noun

cost m

  1. option, choice; possibility
  2. condition, manner, way
    þæs costes þe (on the condition that)

Declension

Adjective

cost

  1. chosen, choice
  2. tried, proven; excellent

Declension

Old French

Noun

cost m ‎(oblique plural coz or cotz, nominative singular coz or cotz, nominative plural cost)

  1. cost; financial outlay

Related terms

Welsh

Etymology

Borrowing from English cost.

Noun

cost m, f (plural costau)

  1. cost
  2. expense

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
cost gost nghost chost
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Etymology

From Middle English cost, coust, from costen ‎(“to cost”), see below.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkost/

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