cosset
Americanverb (used with object)
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cossets,
present (3rd person singular)
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cosseted,
past participle, past
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cosseting
present participle
noun
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a lamb brought up without its dam; pet lamb.
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any pet.
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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cossetsimple
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cossetssimple
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have cossetedperfect
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has cossetedperfect
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am cossetingprogressive
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are cossetingprogressive
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is cossetingprogressive
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have been cossetingperfect progressive
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has been cossetingperfect progressive
Past
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cossetedsimple
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had cossetedperfect
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was cossetingprogressive
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were cossetingprogressive
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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:
Mr. Gilfix drew on his own experience to cosset Ms. Golosker, transforming her predicament into something very romantic, she said, as both were attuned to the fragility of life.
From New York Times ● May 13, 2022
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
It is clear from the excellent condition of all our homes that we cosset them.
From The Guardian ● May 25, 2012
We’ll take it home to Herself and let her cosset it up a bit!”
From The Irish Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins
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
My musical nephew there cossets himself up in his room, while I, at his age, was out making my way in the world.
From Edelweiss A Story by Berthold Auerbach
There is really no describing how a swindler cossets his dupe.
From Sons of the Soil by Honoré de Balzac
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
The characters she plays in that show and in this film are financially cosseted but psychologically adrift, bumping along from one middle-aged frustration, or humiliation, to the next.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 26, 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
Sleeping on the mat outside her door, don't you know, when she wasn't feeling well, and being found there in the morning and being rather cosseted for my thoughtfulness.
From The Intrusion of Jimmy by P. G. (Pelham Grenville) Wodehouse
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
“You’ve got to have a sense of risk and excitement,” she says, “otherwise we’re cosseting our kids in a bubble-wrapped world.”
From The Guardian ● Oct. 31, 2019
When the vastly unqualified Dell stumbles into a job as Phillip’s caregiver, he’s rewarded with an eyebrow-raising salary and a depressed patient who needs entertaining more than cosseting.
From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2019
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
When one has one's flowers by the specimen and not by the score, such cosseting is possible.
From Mary's Meadow And Other Tales of Fields and Flowers by Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing
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.
