n. Address; greeting. [ R. ] J. Morley. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Accosted; p. pr. & vb. n. Accosting. ] [ F. accoster, LL. accostare to bring side by side; L. ad + costa rib, side. See Coast, and cf. Accoast. ] 1. To join side to side; to border; hence, to sail along the coast or side of. [ Obs. ] “So much [ of Lapland ] as accosts the sea.” Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To approach; to make up to. [ Archaic ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To speak to first; to address; to greet. “Him, Satan thus accosts.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To adjoin; to lie alongside. [ Obs. ] “The shores which to the sea accost.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. accostable. ] Approachable; affable. [ R. ] Hawthorne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Her.) Supported on both sides by other charges; also, side by side. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Ale + L. costus an aromatic plant: cf. Costmary. ] (Bot.) The plant costmary, which was formerly much used for flavoring ale. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. bi- + costate. ] (Bot.) Having two principal ribs running longitudinally, as a leaf. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., fr. Gr. kako`s bad + &unr_; mouth. ] (Med.) Diseased or gangrenous condition of the mouth. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

‖n. [ NL., from Gr. &unr_; grain, seed + &unr_; bone. ] (Paleon.) An extinct genus of Devonian ganoid fishes, having the broad plates about the head studded with berrylike tubercles. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a steroid compound produced by the adrenal cortex, or a synthetic analog of such a compound.
Syn. -- corticoid. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. any of several steroid compounds secreted by the adrenal cortex; they are involved in regulating water and electrolyte balance in the body. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ L. costa rib. See Coast. ] 1. A rib; a side; a region or coast. [ Obs. ] Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

Betwixt the costs of a ship. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Her.) See Cottise. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Cost; p. pr. & vb. n. Costing. ] [ OF. coster, couster, F. coûter, 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

A diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Though it cost me ten nights' watchings. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To require to be borne or suffered; to cause. [ 1913 Webster ]

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

To cost dear, to require or occasion a large outlay of money, or much labor, self-denial, suffering, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. cost, F. coût. 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 benefit. [ 1913 Webster ]

One day shall crown the alliance on 't so please you,
Here at my house, and at my proper cost. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

At less cost of life than is often expended in a skirmish, [ Charles V. ] saved Europe from invasion. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Loss of any kind; detriment; pain; suffering. [ 1913 Webster ]

I know thy trains,
Though dearly to my cost, thy gins and toils. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. pl. (Law) Expenses incurred in litigation. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ L., rib. See Coast. ] 1. (Anat.) A rib of an animal or a human being. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A rib or vein of a leaf, especially the midrib. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Zool.) (a) The anterior rib in the wing of an insect. (b) One of the riblike longitudinal ridges on the exterior of many corals. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. coustage. ] Expense; cost. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. costal. See Costa. ] 1. (Anat.) Pertaining to the ribs or the sides of the body; as, costal nerves. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot. & Zool.) Relating to a costa, or rib. [ 1913 Webster ]

Costal cartilage. See Cartilage, and Illust. of Thorax. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Bot.) Having the nerves spring from the midrib. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Prob. fr. OF. coste rib, side, F. côte, and meaning orig., a ribbed apple, from the ribs or angles on its sides. See Coast. ] 1. An apple, large and round like the head. [ 1913 Webster ]

Some [ apples ] consist more of air than water . . . ; others more of water than wind, as your costards and pomewaters. Muffett. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The head; -- used contemptuously. [ 1913 Webster ]

Try whether your costard or my bat be the harder. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A costermonger. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ L. costatus, fr. costa rib. ] Having ribs, or the appearance of ribs; (Bot.) having one or more longitudinal ribs. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ Cornish cothas dropped + stean tin. ] To search after lodes. See Costeaning. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The process by which miners seek to discover metallic lodes. It consist in sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from one pit to another across the direction of the vein, in such manner as to cross all the veins between the two pits. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. costa rib. ] Finely ribbed or costated. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Abbrev. of costermonger. ] One who hawks about fruit, green vegetables, fish, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Costard. ] An apple seller; a hawker of, or dealer in, any kind of fruit or vegetables; a fruiterer. [ Written also costardmonger. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Costa + -ferous. ] (Anat.) Rib-bearing, as the dorsal vertebræ. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. cost accounting. [ British ] [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ OF. costevé, p. p. of costever, F. constiper, L. constipare to press closely together, to cram; con- + stipare to press together, cram. See Stipulate, Stiff, and cf. Constipate. ] 1. Retaining fecal matter in the bowels; having too slow a motion of the bowels; constipated. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Reserved; formal; close; cold. [ Obs. ] “A costive brain.” Prior. “Costive of laughter.” B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

You must be frank, but without indiscretion; and close, but without being costive. Lord Chesterfield. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Dry and hard; impermeable; unyielding. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Clay in dry seasons is costive, hardening with the sun and wind. Mortimer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a costive manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. An unnatural retention of the fecal matter of the bowels; constipation. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Inability to express one's self; stiffness. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A reverend disputant of the same costiveness in public elocution with myself. Wakefield. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Costing nothing. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Costly. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being costy; expensiveness; sumptuousness. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ From Cost expense. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. Of great cost; expensive; dear. [ 1913 Webster ]

He had fitted up his palace in the most costly and sumptuous style, for the accomodation of the princess. Prescott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Gorgeous; sumptuous. [ Poetic. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

To show how costly summer was at hand. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. costum an Oriental aromatic plant (Gr. &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;, cf. Ar. kost, kust) + Maria Mary. Cf. Alecost. ] (Bot.) A garden plant (Chrysanthemum Balsamita) having a strong balsamic smell, and nearly allied to tansy. It is used as a pot herb and salad plant and in flavoring ale and beer. Called also alecost. [ 1913 Webster ]

Signals made by burning lights of different colors and used by vessels at sea, and in the life-saving service; -- named after their inventor. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ Costa + Gr. &unr_;&unr_;&unr_;&unr_; to cut. ] An instrument (chisel or shears) to cut the ribs and open the thoracic cavity, in post-mortem examinations and dissections. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. determining payment based on the actual cost of production plus an agreed-upon fee or rate of profit; as, a cost-plus government contract. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ CF. W. costrel, OF. costrel, LL. costrellum, a liquid measure, costrellus a wine cup. ] A bottle of leather, earthenware, or wood, having ears by which it was suspended at the side. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

A youth, that, following with a costrel, bore
The means of goodly welcome, flesh and wine. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. costume, It. costume custom, dress, fr. L. consuetumen (not found), for consuetudo custom. See Custom, and cf. Consuetude. ] 1. Dress in general; esp., the distinctive style of dress of a people, class, or period. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Such an arrangement of accessories, as in a picture, statue, poem, or play, as is appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances represented or described. [ 1913 Webster ]

I began last night to read Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel . . . .I was extremely delighted with the poetical beauty of some parts . . . .The costume, too, is admirable. Sir J. Mackintosh. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A character dress, used at fancy balls or for dramatic purposes. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who makes or deals in costumes, as for theaters, fancy balls, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. an annual herb (Saussurea costus) of the eastern Himalayas (Kashmir) having purple florets and a fragrant root that yields a volatile oil used in perfumery and for preserving furs.
Syn. -- Saussurea costus, Saussurea lappa. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. [ L. creber close + costa rib. ] (Zool.) Marked with closely set ribs or ridges. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. curvus + E. costate. ] (Bot.) Having bent ribs. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. Same as Discoast. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. e- + costate. ] (Bot.) Having no ribs or nerves; -- said of a leaf. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. flexus bent + E. costate. ] (Anat.) Having bent or curved ribs. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. (Anat. & Physiol.) Between the ribs; pertaining to, or produced by, the parts between the ribs; as, intercostal respiration, in which the chest is alternately enlarged and contracted by the intercostal muscles. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. latus broad + E. costate. ] Broad-ribbed. [ 1913 Webster ]