first cousin

American  

noun

1. cousin.

2. anything or anyone closely related to or resembling another.

   The film producer tried not to make the movie a first cousin to his last hit.

---

first cousin Idioms  

1. A close relation or resemblance to someone or something, as in This new machine is a first cousin to the previous model. The figurative use of cousin, which literally means “the child of one's aunt or uncle,” dates from the 1300s.

---

Etymology

Origin of first cousin

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

If the distinguished Soviet literary scholar Olga Freidenberg is known at all in the West, it is for her 45-year correspondence with her beloved first cousin, the novelist and poet Boris Pasternak.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

It wasn’t the first time that Huang had snubbed Su, who is also his first cousin, once removed.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026

She was married to the first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

From BBC • Sep. 16, 2025

Lady Gabriella is the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent - with Prince Michael, aged 81, a grandson of King George V and first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

From BBC • Dec. 21, 2024

Sourmelina Zizmo, nee Papadiamandopoulos, was my grandparents’ cousin and hence my first cousin twice removed.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides