Cost (k?st; 115), n. [L. costa rib. See Coast.] 1. A rib; a side; a region or coast. [Obs.]
Piers Plowman.
Betwixt the costs of a ship.
B. Jonson.
2. Her. See Cottise.
© Webster 1913.
Cost (k?st; 115), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cost; p. pr. & vb. n. Costing.] [OF. coster, couster, F. coter, fr. L. constare to stand at, to cost; con- + stare to stand. See Stand, and cf. Constant.] 1. To require to be given, expended, or laid out therefor, as in barter, purchase, acquisition, etc.; to cause the cost, expenditure, relinquishment, or loss of; as, the ticket cost a dollar; the effort cost his life.
A d'amond gone, cost me two thousand ducats.
Shak.
Though it cost me ten nights' watchings.
Shak.
2. To require to be borne or suffered; to cause.
To do him wanton rites, whichcost them woe.
Milton.
To cost dear, to require or occasion a large outlay of money, or much labor, self-denial, suffering, etc.
© Webster 1913.
Cost, n. [OF. cost, F. cot. See Cost, v. t. ] 1. The amount paid, charged, or engaged to be paid, for anything bought or taken in barter; charge; expense; hence, whatever, as labor, self-denial, suffering, etc., is requisite to secure benefitt.
One day shall crown the alliance on 't so please you,
Here at my house, and at my proper cost.
Shak.
At less cost of life than is often expended in a skirmish, [Charles V.] saved Europe from invasion.
Prescott.
2. Loss of any kind; detriment; pain; suffering.
I know thy trains,
Though dearly to my cost, thy gins and toils.
Milton.
3. pl. Law Expenses incurred in litigation.
⇒ Costs in actions or suits are either between attorney and client, being what are payable in every case to the attorney or counsel by his client whether he ultimately succeed or not, or between party and party, being those which the law gives, or the court in its discretion decrees, to the prevailing, against the losing, party.
Bill of costs. See under Bill. -- Cost free, without outlay or expense. "Her duties being to talk French, and her privileges to live cost free and to gather scraps of knowledge."
Thackeray.
© Webster 1913. | 
