Link Centre Dictionary

cuss

UK/kʊs/ US/kʌs/ uncommon dated us
noun (3) verb (1)

noun

1.
2.

a boy or man

  • “that chap is your host”
  • “there”
  • “;”
  • “s a likable cuss”
Synonyms
3.

verb

1.

utter obscenities or profanities

  • “The drunken men were cursing loudly in the street”
Synonyms

Origin

An American English variant of curse; for a similar phonetic development, compare ass (“buttocks”), from arse, in which the r was originally pronounced (as in curse). Etymology 1, noun sense 3 (“fellow, person”) is from the replacement of a derogatory or affectionate curse word like bitch in son of a bitch with the word cuss, after etymology 1, noun sense 2 (“curse word”).

Phrases

  • cuss box
  • cuss jar
  • cuss word
  • give a tinker's cuss
  • tinker's cuss
  • what the cuss

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.