Word.ws English Dictionary

under the cosh

under the cosh prepositional phrase: subjected to (figurative) pressure; under the gun.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (UK, informal) subjected to (figurative) pressure; under the gun
    • Having been under the cosh Swansea were enjoying a promising spell and Begovic had to deny Graham having a free header before Swansea's record signing secured victory with five minutes remaining.2011 October 2, Aled Williams, “Swansea 2 - 0 Stoke”, in BBC Sport Wales
    • Scotland were leading 1-0 but they were under the cosh against the 83rd best team in the world. They were hanging on; vulnerable, error-ridden.2026 June 14, Tom English, “Why Haiti v Scotland was antidote to the ills of world football”, in BBC Sport

Questions about under the cosh

What does under the cosh mean?
Under the cosh means subjected to (figurative) pressure; under the gun.
What part of speech is under the cosh?
Under the cosh is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under the cosh in the dictionary

  1. under square
  2. under the auspices of
  3. under the bootheel of
  4. under the breath
  5. under the carpet
  6. under the cosh
  7. under the counter
  8. under the covers
  9. under the fist of
  10. under the gun
  11. under the hammer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under the cosh (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: En-au-under the cosh.ogg.

Cite this entry: “under the cosh.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/under_the_cosh. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.