Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use cousin in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Cousin means chiefly with a qualifying word: Any relation (especially a distant one) who is not a direct ancestor or descendant but part of a person's extended family; a kinsman or kinswoman. Example: “Although we were cousins, we grew up like sisters.”

Examples of cousin by meaning

nounWhen used without a qualifying word: the child of a person's parent's brother (that is, an uncle) or sister (an aunt)...

  • Although we were cousins, we grew up like sisters.
  • Despite being related by blood and commonly in the same generation, cousins can end up with completely different upbringings, class backgrounds, values, and interests.2023 December 19, Faith Hill, “The Great Cousin Decline”, in The Atlantic

nounA person of an ethnicity or nationality regarded as closely related to someone of another ethnicity or nationality.

  • In due course we have the help of our Australian cousins.1916 June, Max Beerbohm, “A. V. Laider”, in Seven Men, London: William Heinemann, published 1919, →OCLC, page 147

nounSomething kindred or related to something else; a relative.

  • Jerry Rawlings has pissed off not only the Company (the CIA) but its cousin (the Mossad) in the Middle East.1994, Joel Bainerman, “The Dark Side of the Israeli–American Relationship”, in Inside the Covert Operations of the CIA & Israel’s Mossad...
  • Partnering, along with its less irritating cousin "partnership", crops up all over the place, being equally useful to the lazy jargoneer and the lazy policy-maker.2003 November 21, Tim Homfray, “What do they mean …”, in Times Educational Supplement, London: TSL Education, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from...
  • NASA has discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting around a star, which a NASA researcher called a "bigger, older cousin to Earth."2015 July 23, Tessa Berenson, “NASA Discovers New Earth-like Planet”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...

verbTo regard (oneself or someone) as a cousin to another person.

  • Let me say in the beginning that even if I wanted to avoid Texas I could not, for I am wived in Texas and mother-in-lawed and uncled and aunted and cousined within an inch of my life.1962 July, John Steinbeck, “Part 1”, in Travels with Charley in Search of America, London: William Heinemann, published 1962, →OCLC, page...

verbTo associate with someone or something on a close basis.

  • "Cousining" was a Saranac Lake euphemism that applied to a couple, both of them patients and sometimes already married with a spouse living far away, who spent time together or dated each other.2007, Caperton Tissot, quoting Elise Chapin, “Some Offered Healing, Some Found Healing”, in Willem Tissot, editor, History between the...
  • The UK has fiscal arithmetic cousined with that of Greece, but is dealing with it.2012, David Roche, Bob McKee, “The Moral Failure of Democracy”, in Democrisis: Democracy Caused the Debt Crisis. Will It Survive It?...

verbTo visit a cousin or other relation.

  • They "cousined" (stopped with relatives) all the way.1959 January 5, “An 80th Wedding Anniversary”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Life, volume 46, number 1, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y....

More sentences with cousin

  • My little cousin is such a dear, always drawing me pictures.From the entry dear
  • He's my double cousin as my mother's sister married my father's brother.From the entry double
  • His older cousin was just gigging him about being in love with that girl from school.From the entry gig
  • When the map was redrawn after the war, our cousin found herself living in outlying territory.From the entry outlying
  • Everybody and his cousin will be in line for opening night with free popcorn!From the entry everybody and his cousin
  • This snake looks nearly the same as its poisonous cousin but is harmless.From the entry harmless
  • My cousin got off lightly with a restraining order after he broke the boy’s leg.From the entry get off lightly
  • My cousin and I have a grandfather and grandmother in common.From the entry in common
  • The cousins were such close lookalikes they could impersonate each other, and sometimes did.From the entry lookalike
  • The cousin of my grandmother is my first cousin twice removed.From the entry twice removed
  • Hey, Mister magenta-shirt over there looks a lot like your cousin Bill.From the entry mister
  • Hey man, did you finish that transaction with my cousin? You do right by him?From the entry do right by
  • Many societies forbid marriage between parallel cousins, but encourage marriage between cross-cousins or second cross-cousins.From the entry cross-cousin
  • Cousin Floyd couldn't play his banjo quite right, onaccounta the fact he's got blisters on his fingers.From the entry onaccounta
  • I haven’t seen my cousin in over a decade!From the entry decade
  • Mother Smith, meet my cousin, Doug Jones.From the entry mother
  • Uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and nieces are collateral relatives.From the entry collateral
  • My cousin drove me to the airport.From the entry drive
  • Phil and Andre are first cousins once removed.From the entry once removed
  • Steve is my second cousin once removed.From the entry removed
  • Her favorite Chanukah memories were of eating latkes and sour cream while her mother gossiped with the aunts and cousins.From the entry latke
  • The kingdom was usurped by the king's cousin.From the entry usurped
  • I ran into your cousin the other day.From the entry run into
  • His two cousins are very much alike.From the entry very much
  • During Snovid, our entire neighborhood lost water and power, so we had to stay at our cousins' place for a week.From the entry Snovid
  • In the middle of our argument, my cousin left without saying another word, so I guess that's that on that.From the entry that's that on that
  • My cousin is an expert pianist.From the entry expert
  • Nowadays there are all kinds of potential parentals besides parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, step-parents, in-laws, older siblings and cousins, and those in civil unions.From the entry parental
  • Walter is my dad's first cousin. That makes Walter my cousin-uncle. Jack is my mother's first cousin, so for me he is another cousin-uncle.From the entry cousin-uncle
  • Mary is my mother's first cousin. That makes Mary my cousin-aunt. Judy is my dad's first cousin, so for me she is another cousin-aunt.From the entry cousin-aunt

Meaning of cousin

  1. noun Chiefly with a qualifying word: Any relation (especially a distant one) who is not a direct ancestor or descendant but part of a person's extended family; a kinsman or kinswoman.
  2. noun Preceded by an ordinal number, as first, second, third, etc.: a person descended from a common ancestor by the same number of generations as another person.
  3. noun When used without a qualifying word: the child of a person's parent's brother (that is, an uncle) or sister (an aunt); a cousin-german, a first cousin.

Full definition of cousin

Questions about cousin in a sentence

How do you use cousin in a sentence?
Cousin is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Although we were cousins, we grew up like sisters.”
What is a short sentence with cousin?
“My cousin is an expert pianist.”
What does cousin mean?
Cousin means chiefly with a qualifying word: Any relation (especially a distant one) who is not a direct ancestor or descendant but part of a person's extended family; a kinsman or kinswoman.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cousin (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use cousin in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/cousin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.