| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
| |
| cost |
| |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  kôst |
| NOUN: | 1. An amount paid or required in payment for a purchase; a price. 2. The expenditure of something, such as time or labor, necessary for the attainment of a goal: “Freedom to advocate unpopular causes does not require that such advocacy be without cost” (Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom 1982). 3. costs Law The charges fixed for litigation, often payable by the losing party. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: cost, cost·ing, costs
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To require a specified payment, expenditure, effort, or loss: It costs more to live in the city. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To have as a price. 2. To cause to lose, suffer, or sacrifice: Participating in the strike cost me my job. 3. Inflected forms: past tense and past participle costed
To estimate or determine the cost of: The accountants costed out our expenses. | | IDIOM: | at all costs Regardless of the expense or effort involved; by any means. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old French, from coster, to cost, from Latin c nst re, to be fixed, cost. See constant. | | OTHER FORMS: | cost less —ADJECTIVE
| | |
| |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
|
|
