cuss
/kʌs/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/kʊs/
cuss verb: to use cursing, to use bad language, to speak profanely.
Verb
cuss (third-person singular simple present cusses, present participle cussing, simple past and past participle cussed)
- To use cursing, to use bad language, to speak profanely.
- I went over the fence like a shot, and ran like one o'clock for the trap, cussing and swearing as I went.1899, H. G. Wells, Mr. Brisher's Treasure
Noun (1)
cuss (plural cusses)
- A curse.
- A curse word.
- Fellow, person.
- He's an abrupt-sounding cuss, but good-hearted too.
- Biggest rascal [...] and the most likable cuss I've run up against in a year.1912, Ainslee's, volume 28, page 130
Noun (2)
cuss (plural cusses)
- A fellow, person.
- Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme.
"The low-down, ornery cuss!" said Dobbs. "The nerve of him, crowdin' in on us, just as if there...1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate - "Proud young cuss, aren't you?" "Apparently - I don't know." "Or is it you are just pig-headed?"1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter I, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, page 6
- Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme.
cuss meaning in Tamil
cuss in Tamil
- திட்டு, ஏசு, வை, அவதூறாகப் பேசு
Examples of cuss in a sentence
- Polybius was a determined cuss and he kept at the fruit cart until he saved enough to start a regular fruit store.1920, International Fire Fighter, volumes 3-4, page 26:
- Dawn Run's owner, Charmian Hill, who had insisted on trainer Paddy Mullins 'jocking off' his son Tony and putting up Jonjo O'Neill to ride her in the Gold Cup, was an awkward cuss too.2012, Robin Oakley, Britain and Ireland's Top 100 Racehorses of All Time:
Forms of cuss
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | cusses |
| present participle | cussing |
| past participle | cussed |
| past | cussed |
| Noun | |
| plural | cusses |
Origin of cuss
An American English variant of curse; for a similar phonetic development, compare ass (“buttocks”), from arse, in which the r was originally pronounced (as in curse). Etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“fellow, person”) is from the replacement of a derogatory or affectionate curse word like bitch in son of a bitch with the word cuss, after etymology 1, noun sense 2 (“curse word”).
Clipping of customer.
Words formed from cuss
Phrases with cuss
Words that rhyme with cuss
11 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about cuss
- What does cuss mean?
- Cuss means to use cursing, to use bad language, to speak profanely.
- What is cuss in Tamil?
- Cuss in Tamil is திட்டு, ஏசு, வை. See Cuss meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use cuss in a sentence?
- Polybius was a determined cuss and he kept at the fruit cart until he saved enough to start a regular fruit store.
- What part of speech is cuss?
- Cuss can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce cuss?
- Cuss is pronounced /kʌs/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of cuss?
- The past tense of cuss is cussed.
Words near cuss in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cuss (page history and authors); cuss (Tamil 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-cuss.wav.
Cite this entry: “cuss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cuss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.