cosh

• English:
  • IPA^(key): /kɒʃ/, /kɒsˈeɪt͡ʃ/
  • Rhymes: -ɒʃ

cosh

1. (trigonometry) The hyperbolic function hyperbolic cosine.

The symbol cosh is prescribed by the ISO 80000-2:2019 standard. The symbol ch is also in use, and is especially favoured in French- and Russian-language texts.

• cos
• sinh
• tanh

Probably from Romani košter (“stick”).

• IPA^(key): /kɒʃ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒʃ

cosh (plural coshes)

1. A weapon made of leather-covered metal similar to a blackjack.
2. A blunt instrument such as a bludgeon or truncheon.
3. (UK, education, slang, dated) The cane.
   • 1959, Iona Opie, Peter Opie, The lore and language of schoolchildren, page 374:

     There is no need here to digress on the advantages or otherwise of using a 'cosh' in schools […]

   • 2019, John Loveday, The Boy from Rod Alley, page 115:

     Often, he walked around the room with the cosh in his hand, taking slashes at legs that happened to stray sideways […]

cosh (third-person singular simple present coshes, present participle coshing, simple past and past participle coshed)

1. (transitive) To strike with a weapon of this kind.

• bludgeon

cosh (comparative more cosh, superlative most cosh)

1. (Scotland) cosy; snug

• CHOs, COHs, Chos, OHCs, SOHC, Sohc

cosh

1. (obsolete, except for set phrases) dative singular of cass

   ry-chosh ― on foot

   fo chosh ― underfoot

còsh

1. possessed form of osh: your father

• Roger Williams (1643) A Key into the Language of America, London: Gregory Dexter, →OCLC, page 28

cosh

1. Alternative form of coshes (“conscience”)
   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 116, lines 10-11:

     az Irishmen, an az dwellerès na cosh an loyale o' Baronie Forthe,

     as Irishmen, and as inhabitants, faithful and loyal, of the Barony Forth,

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 116