cosset
Americanverb (used with object)
noun
-
a lamb brought up without its dam; pet lamb.
-
any pet.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
cossetsimple
-
cossetssimple
-
have cossetedperfect
-
has cossetedperfect
-
am cossetingprogressive
-
are cossetingprogressive
-
is cossetingprogressive
-
have been cossetingperfect progressive
-
has been cossetingperfect progressive
Past
-
cossetedsimple
-
had cossetedperfect
-
was cossetingprogressive
-
were cossetingprogressive
-
had been cossetingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cosset
First recorded in 1570–80; Middle English; derivative verb use of the noun cosset “a lamb raised as a pet”; of uncertain etymology, but possibly Middle English cot-sēte “cottage dweller, cottager,” from Old English cot- sǣta
Explanation
To cosset is to pamper or spoil. Your mom might cosset her beloved lap dog, feeding him homemade meals and singing him to sleep. If your parents used to cosset you when you were little, they may have protected you from injury and indulged your every whim. Your temptation might be to cosset small children or elderly relatives, pampering them and shielding them from difficulty. In the 17th century, cosset had the additional sense of "fondle and caress," as you might cuddle a baby or a puppy. Earlier, the word was a noun meaning "a lamb raised as a pet."
Vocabulary lists containing cosset
"The Wife of Bath's Tale," Vocabulary from the narrative poem
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"The Wife of Bath's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
In contrast, the high-ticket productions on Broadway more often than not aim to cosset.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2019
There are other reasons for governments to cosset the big four.
From The Guardian ● May 29, 2018
She wonders if there was something in Farquharson, by contrast, that brought out “the maternal in women, our tendency to cosset, to infantilise.”
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 4, 2016
Supporters of scooters say they offer something extremely valuable - freedom, countering the perceived tendency of many risk-averse parents to cosset their children indoors.
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2015
IF thou wilt close thy drowsy eyes, My mulberry one, my golden son, The rose shall sing thee lullabies, My pretty cosset lambkin!
From Second Book of Verse by Field, Eugene
Yet The Man Who Knew Infinity also shows the place as a golden doll’s house that cossets the don he plays, Trinity College maths professor GH Hardy.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 24, 2016
A fun place is somewhere that lifts the spirits, that cossets the senses.
From Reuters ● Oct. 27, 2010
No, she calls the Plaza's elegant Edwardian Room, an oasis that cossets the wealthy with candles and linen napkins.
From Time Magazine Archive
By and by I grew up to be a big girl, and then, what with tending the sick sheep, and bringing up the cossets, I had plenty to do.
From Minnie's Pet Lamb by Leslie, Madeline
And they would probable be disgusted because she didn't wear cossets.
From Samantha at the World's Fair by Grimm, Baron C. de
An otherwise urban-dwelling sophisticate, he cultivated a rustic demeanor for France’s benefit, uncharacteristically donning a coonskin hat and simple clothes to impress cosseted aristocrats and ordinary Parisians alike.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
She may have grown up in showbusiness, working on multiple Disney shows before launching her music career, but she's neither cosseted nor precious.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
“But I seem to have been cosseted in some way that I couldn’t get to the writers’ room.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2024
I cosseted my weary garden with clover, practiced patience, saw the vanity of overwork.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 18, 2023
The former was a cosseted member of the establishment and witnessed, first hand, the disintegration of his country.
From Russian Roulette: Russia's Economy in Putin's Era by Vaknin, Samuel
Catherine essentially becomes a character in a Sofia Coppola movie who grows increasingly trapped and anguished in proportion to her cosseting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026
There remains, true to form, beauty in the chaos she conjures, both in the cosseting string section and the sense of awe she exudes without affectation.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 21, 2018
McPhee’s publisher is presenting it as a “master class,” but it’s really a memoir of writing during a time of editorial cosseting that now seems as remote as the court of the Romanovs.
From New York Times ● Nov. 10, 2017
Modern America, with its enervating comforts — including cosseting parents — and present-minded education that produces cultural amnesia, must deliberately make its citizens.
From Washington Post ● May 26, 2017
Rosamund believed in plenty of air for her child, and no "cosseting"; she laughed to scorn, but genially, the nurse's prejudice against "the night air."
From In the Wilderness by Hichens, Robert Smythe
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
