cozen
/ˈkəʊzən/US/ˈkoʊzən/
cozen verb: to become cozy; (by extension) to become acquainted, comfortable, or familiar with.
Verb (1)
cozen (third-person singular simple present cozens, present participle cozening, simple past and past participle cozened)
- To become cozy; (by extension) to become acquainted, comfortable, or familiar with.
- "As I see it, Master Fraser, a 'bairn' ought to be verra concerned when a mon thrice her age cozens up to her."2008, Hannah Howell, Silver Flame, page 354
- A wasp nest cozened up in the corner of the far ceiling.2013, Rick Cox, Orphan Moon, page 180
Verb (2)
IPA/ˈkʌzən/
cozen (third-person singular simple present cozens, present participle cozening, simple past and past participle cozened)
- To cheat; to defraud; to deceive, usually by small arts, or in a pitiful way.
- […] good Vulcan, for Cupids sake that hath cousned us all: befriend us as thou maiest […]c. 1590 (date written), G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. […], London: […] Iohn Danter, for Raph Hancocke, and Iohn Hardie, […], published 1595, →OCLC
- What diuell was't / That thus hath couſend you at hoodman-blinde?c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Synonyms:
- beguile, abuse, beglammer, counterfeit, deceive, catch, trap into, dissemble, dissimulate, feign
Proper noun capitalized: Cozen
Cozen
- A surname.
cozen meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
cozen in Tamil
- ஏமாற்று, ஏமாற்றிப் பெறு, பறி, மோசடி செய், வஞ்சி
cozen in Bengali
- প্রতারণা করা, ঠকানো
cozen in Malayalam
- trick, delude, deceive
- കളിപ്പിക്കുക, പറ്റിക്കുക, ചതിക്കുക, സൂത്രവിദ്യ പ്രയോഗിക്കുക, കബളിപ്പിക്കുക, വളയ്ക്കുക
cozen in Kannada
- ಆಳವಾಡು, ಉಕ್ಕೆವಿಸು
Examples of cozen in a sentence
- I heard someone at the swap meet say they were going to cozen up to someone, and someone else told me my sales pitch was a filibuster.2013, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Wild Shore, page 26:
- [I]t was resolved that he was to do his duty; that is, to redeem his vow; that is, to pay a debt cozened from him by a sharper […]1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 8, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I...
Synonyms of cozen
- beguile
- beglammer
- counterfeit
- deceive
- catch
- trap into
- dissemble
- dissimulate
- feign
- jiff
Forms of cozen
| third-person singular present | cozens |
|---|---|
| present participle | cozening |
| past participle | cozened |
| past | cozened |
| alternative form (obsolete) | coosen |
| alternative form (obsolete) | coosin |
| alternative form (obsolete) | cosen |
Origin of cozen
From coz(y) + -en.
Perhaps from obsolete Italian cozzonare (“to cheat”), from cozzone (“middleman, broker”), from Latin cōciō (“dealer”).
Words that rhyme with cozen
Questions about cozen
- What does cozen mean?
- Cozen means to become cozy; (by extension) to become acquainted, comfortable, or familiar with.
- What is cozen in Tamil?
- Cozen in Tamil is ஏமாற்று, ஏமாற்றிப் பெறு, பறி. See Cozen meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use cozen in a sentence?
- I heard someone at the swap meet say they were going to cozen up to someone, and someone else told me my sales pitch was a filibuster.
- What part of speech is cozen?
- Cozen can be a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cozen?
- Cozen is pronounced /ˈkəʊzən/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of cozen?
- The past tense of cozen is cozened.
Words near cozen in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cozen (page history and authors); Cozen (page history and authors); cozen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cozen (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cozen (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); cozen (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cozen.wav.
Cite this entry: “cozen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cozen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.