▪ I. † cosh, n.1 Obs. or dial.
Also 5 cosche, 5–6 cosshe, 6 cosse.
[Of uncertain origin: Gaelic cois ‘little hole, cavern’ has been compared.]
A small cottage, hut, hovel.
| c 1490 Promp. Parv. 94 Coote, lytylle howse [K. cosh, H. cosche, Pynson cosshe], casa. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 142 b, Some persones buyldeth to god but a poore cosshe or small cotage. 1530 Palsgr. 209/1 Cosshe a sorie house, cauerne. 1547 Salesbury Dict. Welsh, Bwth, cottage, cosse. 1847 Halliwell, Cosh, a cottage, or hovel. Craven. |
▪ II. cosh, n.2 dial.
[Cf. OF. cos (Godef.), F. cosse pod.]
The husk of grain; the pod of beans or pease.
| 1787–95 W. Marshall Rur. Econ. Norfolk Gloss., Cosh, the husk or chaff of wheat and oats. 1866 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Ser. ii. II. i. 167 The..cost of separating it [seed] from the husk or cosh must always be considerable. 1886 S.W. Linc. Gloss., Cosh, the pod of beans or tares: as ‘Tars have such a many coshes’; hence also Cosh'd: as ‘How well the beans are cosh'd’. |
▪ III. cosh, n.3 slang.
(kɒʃ)
Also kosh.
a. A stout stick, bludgeon or truncheon; a length of metal used as a life-preserver; also (dial.), a stick; a school cane; a caning. Phr. under the cosh, at one's mercy, helpless.
| 1869 ‘A Merchant’ 6 Yrs. in Prisons vii. 76 The coshman (a man who carries a ‘cosh’ or life preserver). a 1889 in Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang (1889) s.v., The officer..sought to give the finishing coup de grâce with his cosh. 1893 H. T. Cozens-Hardy Broad Norfolk 83 Words which I have been accustomed to hear in common use... Cosh,..a stick. 1896 A. Morrison Child of Jago i, The cosh was a foot length of iron rod, with a knob at one end, and a hook (or a ring) at the other. 1898 Wright Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., Cosh, ..a caning at school. War[wickshire]. You will get the cosh. 1904 Daily Chron. 29 Sept. 4/5 ‘Coshes’—pieces of lead pipe, known to the police as life-preservers. 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 64 Cosh, the bludgeon carried by night patrols men and trench raiders. Ibid. 138 Kosh, a name for a trench club, or knobkerry, used in trench raids. 1927 Weekly Dispatch 23 Oct. 4 A truncheon, or, in prison vernacular, ‘kosh’. 1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights i. 37 In the nick where you are under the cosh..most of the screws seem to take a sadistic delight in makeing [sic] things as uncomfortable as they can for you. 1959 ‘M. Ainsworth’ Murder is Catching i. 19 Clench a newspaper over a handful of coins and you've got a comfortable little cosh. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren xvii. 374 Amongst children one of the most common names for the cane is ‘the cosh’. 1960 Observer 24 Jan. 7/2 As for the Criminal Justice Act, it could be very useful to have all the villains under the cosh, as they expressed it. It made it much easier to get information. 1965 Spectator 15 Jan. 67/1 All chains gone from the boys' lavatories to make coshes. |
b. ellipt. = cosh-boy, cosh-man.
| 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 182/2 Cosh,..with the, one who uses a cosh. 1963 ‘J. Bell’ Flat Tyre iv. 36 He had been..picked as a useful cosh. |
c. attrib. and Comb., as cosh-bandit, -boy, -man, one who uses or carries a cosh; cosh-carrier, a prostitute's bully; hence cosh-carrying.
| 1954 Britannica Bk. of Year 637/1 Cosh-bandit. 1964 Economist 6 June 1141/2 Unless it is taken..by cosh-bandits before he gets it. |
| 1953 ‘H. Cecil’ Natural Causes xvii. 198 As a prosecutor he would become known as ‘The terror of the cosh boys’. 1954 Ann. Reg. 1953 7 Two ‘cosh boys’, as they were called (young ruffians armed with coshes or in some cases firearms), had been convicted. |
| 1893 Nott. Express 7 Mar. 6 (E.D.D.), ‘I shall be a cosh-carrier the next trade I start.’ That seemed to be a term to describe a man who looked after a common woman and lived on her prostitution. 1896 A. Morrison Child of Jago i, Cosh-carrying was near to being the major industry of the Jago. Ibid. v, She neither fought nor kept a cosh-carrier. |
| 1869 Coshman [see sense a above]. |
Hence cosh v. trans., to strike with a cosh; coshed ppl. a.; ˈcosher; ˈcoshing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1889 Clarkson & Richardson Police! xxv. 348 ‘Coshers’ and ‘trippers’ or ‘picking-up molls’, are vile men and women who travel from town to town. 1896 A. Morrison Child of Jago i, With a sudden blow behind the head, the stranger was happily coshed. Ibid., The coshed subject..felt the colder air, and moved a leg. 1898 Wright Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., Cosh, ..to beat, flog with a stick. Hence coshing, a flogging, a caning at school. 1905 Ibid. Suppl. 75/1 Cosher, Brks., a slang word for ‘policeman’. 1922 E. Wallace Flying Fifty-Five xlii. 255 Somebody ‘koshed’ Miss Barrington's head lad and nearly killed him. 1927 ― Squeaker xxvii. 253 He pulled the life-preserver from his pocket and thrust it into Leslie's hand. ‘Go and cosh him!’ 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren xvii. 374 The miscreant receives what is variously termed a..caning, clouting, coshing, [etc.]. 1961 Economist 9 Dec. 1021/2 The coshing, car-getaway, cash-grabbing streets of London today. |
▪ IV. cosh, n.4 Math.
(kɒˈseɪtʃ, kɒʃ)
Abbreviation for hyperbolic cosine.
| 1873 Messenger Math. II. 189, (1 - x4)(1 - x4/34){ddd}= cos (πx/2) cosh(πx/2). 1891 E. W. Hobson Treat. Plane Trig. xvi. 303 We have, at once from the definitions, the following relations between the hyperbolic functions: cosh2u- sinh2u = 1, [etc.]. 1968 P. A. P. Moran Introd. Probability Theory vii. 324 Next the cosh term is expanded in an infinite series. |
▪ V. cosh, a. Sc. and dial.
(kɒʃ)
[Derivation unknown.]
1. Quiet, still.
| 17.. Gay Goss-hawk xiii. (Minstr. Sc. Border), He..sang fu' sweet the notes o' love, Till a' was cosh within. 1847–78 Halliwell, Cosh, quiet, still. Salop. 1881 Autobiog. J. Younger iv. 34 John Wallace had sat as cosh as a mouse in the corner. Ibid. xxiii. 284 All was hushed as cosh as midnight. Mod. Sc. Keep it cosh! Be cosh about it. |
2. Sheltered, snug, comfortable.
| a 1774 Fergusson Farmer's Ingle, Blythe to find..That a' his housie looks sae cosh and clean. 1813 E. Picken Poems I. 124 (Jam.) I've guid gramashens worn mysel'..They kept me cosh baith cauf an' coots. 1837 R. Nicoll Poems (1842) 82 Beside our cosh hearthstane. |
3. Trim, neat.
| 1826 J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. 1855 I. 94 They come flocking in..their bosoms made cosh and tidy. 1832–53 Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs) Ser. i. 37 The coshest wife that e'er I met, Was Mistress Dougal Dhu. |
4. (See quot.)
| 1808 Jamieson, Cosh..4. In a state of intimacy; ‘They are very cosh’. |