cost1 (kost)

[ means. Bi-knowe alle the costes of care that he hade. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2495. 21. Quality; condition; property; value; worth. Who-so knew the costes that knit ar therinne [in the girdle] He wolde hit prayse at more prys, parauenture. Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight (E. E. T. S.), 1. 1849. Chief men of worth, of mekle cost , To be lament it sair for ay. Battle of Harlaw (Child's Ballads, VII. 188). At all costs, by all means; at all events. [This phrase was formerly in dative singular, without the preposition: We ne mazen alre coste halden Crist bibode. Old Eng. Homilies , p. 21. It is now usually a ociated with cost2 .] - Needes costt, by all means; nece arily. The night was schort, and faste by the daye That needes cost he moste himselven hyde. Chaucer , Knight's Tale (ed. Morris), 1. 619. cost2 (kôst), v . t.; pret. and pp. cost , ppr. cost ing. [ ME.costen , coster , couster , F. coú ter , cost, = Pr. Sp. costar = Pg. custar = It. cos tare (=D. kosten = OHG. * chostōn , MHG. kosten , G. kosten = Dan. koste = Sw. Icel. kosta , after Rom.), cost are , contr. of L. const are , stand together, stand at, cost, com- , together, + stare , stand: see constant.] 1. To require the expenditure of (something valuable) in exchange, purchase, or payment; be of the price of; be acquired in return as, it cost dollars. Though it had coste me catel [wealth]. Piers Plowman (B), Prol., 1. 204. 1290 To cost dear, to require a great outlay, or involve or entail much trouble, suffering, lo , etc. Were it known that you mean as you say, surely those wordes might cost you dear. = Hooker, Eccles. Polity, Pref. to ii., note. 'T has often cost the boldest Cedar dear To grapple with a storm. J. Beaumont , Psyche, i. 89. cost2 (kôst), n. [ cost , coust , F. coût , cost, Pr. cost , costa = Sp. cos to , costa = Pg. custa = It. cos to = D. kost OHG. chosta , MHG. koste , G. kost = Dan. Sw. kost (ML. costa ), cost, expense; from the verb.] 1. The equivalent or price given for a thing or service exchanged, purchased, or paid for; the amount paid, or engaged to be paid, for some thing or some service: as, the cost of a suit of clothes; the cost of building a house. Nothing has any cost until it is actually attained or obtained; while price is the amount which is asked for a service or thing. By Flames a House I hir'd was lost Last Year: and I must pay the Cost . Prior, A Dutch Proverb. Value is the life-giving power of anything; cost , the quantity of labour required to produce it; price, the quantity of labour which its po e or will take in exchange for it. 2. That which is expended; outlay of any kind, as of money, labor, time, or trouble; expense or expenditure in general; specifically, great expense: as, the work was done at public cost . Have we eaten at all of the king's cost ? 2 Sam. xix. 42. Ruskin, Munera Pulver is, § 12. Let foreign princes vainly boast The rude effects of pride and cost . Waller, Her Majesty's New Building. Pa ing to birds, we find preservation of the race secured at a greatly diminished cost to both parents and offspring. H. Spencer , Prin. of Sociol., § 275. 3. pl. In law: (a) The sums fixed by law or allowed by the court for charges in a suit, awarded usually against the party losing, and in favor of the party prevailing or his attorney. Nobody but you can rescue her, and you can only do and that defendant. by paying the costs of the suit-both of plaintiff Dickens , Pickwick, xlvii. (b) The sum which the law allows to the attorne torney, to be paid by his client. - At all costs. See cost 1.- Costs of the cause or of the action, in law, the aggregate of costs to which the prevailing party is entitled against his adversary on reaching final judgment in the cause. Costs of the day, in Eng. law, interlocutory costs imposed on a party in respect to an incidental proceeding at the time it is taken or determined, as, for instance, an adjournment, in contradistinction to general costs of the cause. - Dives costs, in Eng. legal parlance, costs which one allowed to sue without liability to costs voluntarily pays to his attorney, and is therefore, if succe ful, allowed to tax against his adversary. To count the cost. See count1. To one's cost, with inconvenience, suffering, or lo ; to one's detriment or sorrow: as, that some one had blundered, he found to his cost. What they had fondly wished, proved afterwards, to their costs, over true. Knolles, Hist. Turks. Oh frail estate of human beings, And slippery hopes below! Now to our cost your emptine we know. Dryden, Threnodia August a lis, 1. 401. =Syn. 1 and 2. Expense , Worth , etc. See price.