the price paid to acquire, produce, accomplish, or maintain anything: the high cost of a good meal.
an outlay or expenditure of money, time, labor, trouble, etc.: What will the cost be to me?
a sacrifice, loss, or penalty: to work at the cost of one's health.
costs,Law.
money allowed to a successful party in a lawsuit in compensation for legal expenses incurred, chargeable to the unsuccessful party.
money due to a court or one of its officers for services in a cause.
verb (used with object),costor, for 10, cost·ed;cost·ing.
to require the payment of (money or something else of value) in an exchange: That camera cost $200.
to result in or entail the loss of: Carelessness costs lives.
to cause to lose or suffer: The accident cost her a broken leg.
to entail (effort or inconvenience): Courtesy costs little.
to cause to pay or sacrifice: That request will cost us two weeks' extra work.
to estimate or determine the cost of (manufactured articles, new processes, etc.): We have costed the manufacture of each item.
verb (used without object),cost·ed or cost;cost·ing.
to estimate or determine costs, as of manufacturing something.
Verb Phrasespast and past participlecost·ed or cost;present participlecost·ing.
cost out,to calculate the cost of (a project, product, etc.) in advance: The firm that hired him just costed out a major construction project last month.
Idioms for cost
at all costs, regardless of the effort involved; by any means necessary: The stolen painting must be recovered at all costs.Also at any cost.
Origin of cost
First recorded in 1200–50; (verb) Middle English costen, from Anglo-French, Old French co(u)ster, from Latin constāre “to stand together, be settled, cost”; cf. constant; (noun) Middle English, from Anglo-French, Old French, noun derivative of the verb
SYNONYMS FOR cost
1 charge, expense, expenditure, outlay.
3 detriment.
SEE SYNONYMS FOR cost ON THESAURUS.COM
synonym study for cost
1. See price.
OTHER WORDS FROM cost
costless,adjectivecost·less·ness,nounre·cost,verb (used with object),re·cost,re·cost·ing.
Words nearby cost
Cossack, cossack hat, Cossacks, cosset, cossie, cost, costa, Costa Brava, cost-account, cost accounting, Costa del Sol
Kanukollu said they have cut down on power consumption from the LED lights by 50% and reduced the cost of manufacturing by 60% per tube.
UrbanKisaan is betting on vertical farming to bring pesticide-free vegetables to consumers and fight India’s water crisis|Manish Singh|September 17, 2020|TechCrunch
Now teams are international, talent is international, more and more companies are building remote first — although you’d seen that before given the costs of the Bay.
With Goat Capital, Justin Kan and Robin Chan want to keep founding alongside the right teams|Eric Eldon|September 17, 2020|TechCrunch
Still, that’s a fraction of the costs incurred by out-of-control wildfires.
Suppressing fires has failed. Here’s what California needs to do instead.|James Temple|September 17, 2020|MIT Technology Review
To many people, these changes look like the necessary costs of progress.
The Environmental Headache in Your Shampoo - Issue 90: Something Green|Anastasia Bendebury & Michael Shilo DeLay|September 16, 2020|Nautilus
While it’s tough to imagine that AMP will fade away completely within the next couple of years, AMP’s privacy issues combined with the cost of maintaining it might spell the end of it being a widely used practice.
Google ranking factors to change search in 2021: Core Web Vitals, E-A-T, or AMP?|Aleh Barysevich|September 16, 2020|Search Engine Watch
Using standard methods, the cost of printing DNA could run upwards of a billion dollars or more, depending on the strand.
Design Your Own Dinosaur: The Era of Custom DNA|Justin Jones|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“The sensation these objects presented receded as their cost increased,” notes Rabinowitz.
How Pulp Fiction Saved Literature|Wendy Smith|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But the F-35 has been plagued with massive delays and cost overruns—mostly due to design defects and software issues.
New U.S. Stealth Jet Can’t Fire Its Gun Until 2019|Dave Majumdar|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It cost several thousand dollars and a high-powered former district attorney to get the charges dropped.
What Would Happen if I Got in White Cop’s Face?|Goldie Taylor|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
And that realization comes at the cost of severe, public embarrassment for many, including the victim/proposed.
Public Marriage Proposals Must Die|Tauriq Moosa|December 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Mr. R. M. Watts was the architect, and the cost of erecting and equipping the building, exclusive of books, was 3234.
The City of Auckland|John Barr
It might cost five hundred pounds to find him, it might cost five thousand.
My Strangest Case|Guy Boothby
In short, he accumulated all the information he could by which the cost of logging might be estimated.
The Blazed Trail|Stewart Edward White
The cost of building churches and supporting ministers would thus have been unnecessary, but God does not do things in that way.
With the Children on Sunday|Sylvanus Stall
The cost of some headings in the new red sandstone which the writer recently inspected, varied from 30s.
Water Supply: the Present Practice of Sinking and Boring Wells|Ernest Spon
British Dictionary definitions for cost
cost
/ (kɒst) /
noun
the price paid or required for acquiring, producing, or maintaining something, usually measured in money, time, or energy; expense or expenditure; outlay
suffering or sacrifice; loss; penaltycount the cost to your health; I know to my cost
the amount paid for a commodity by its sellerto sell at cost
(as modifier)the cost price
(plural)lawthe expenses of judicial proceedings
at any costorat all costsregardless of cost or sacrifice involved
at the cost ofat the expense of losing
verbcosts, costingorcost
(tr)to be obtained or obtainable in exchange for (money or something equivalent); be priced atthe ride cost one pound
to cause or require the expenditure, loss, or sacrifice (of)the accident cost him dearly
to estimate the cost of (a product, process, etc) for the purposes of pricing, budgeting, control, etc
Derived forms of cost
costless, adjective
Word Origin for cost
C13: from Old French (n), from coster to cost, from Latin constāre to stand at, cost, from stāre to stand