cussing

American  

[kuhs-ing] / ˈkʌs ɪŋ /

noun

1. the act or practice of cursing or swearing.

   Keep the cussing to a minimum, as there are kids around.

2. the act of criticizing or reprimanding someone in harsh language (usually followed byout ).

   After three fouls, the player was pulled from the field and got a good cussing out from his coach.

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adjective

1. cursing or swearing.

   A cussing parrot has landed a woman in court for allegedly teaching the bird to swear at her neighbor.

Etymology

Origin of cussing

First recorded in 1830–40; cuss ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun senses; cuss ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective sense

Example Sentences

“But that’ll die out if there’s no emotional current underneath. The cussing has context. As long as there is an emotional story underneath the bells and whistles of cussing, then that works.”

From Seattle Times • Jan. 26, 2024

Is cussing a part of communication for Scientology believers, one officially sanctioned or dictated?

From Salon • Apr. 29, 2022

“It’s a natural progression going from hockey to being a pastor because in hockey there’s a lot of cussing and fighting and it seems to be the same as a pastor,” he joked.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 5, 2020

“We must always be on guard against mediocre cussing in our writing,” the novelist Katherine Dunn wrote, in a small book called “On Cussing.”

From New York Times • Sep. 16, 2019

First, he’d said a word that I’d never heard before and since he said it in front of Momma I knew it wasn’t cussing.

From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Related Words

• bane
• expletive
• obscenity
• profanity
• whammy