cuss

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʌs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌs

Etymology 1

American English dialect pronunciation of curse. For the phonetic development compare American ass (“buttocks”) for other English arse.

Verb

cuss (third-person singular simple present cusses, present participle cussing, simple past and past participle cussed)

1. (chiefly US, colloquial) To use cursing, to use bad language, to speak profanely.
   • 1899, H. G. Wells, Mr. Brisher's Treasure:

     I went over the fence like a shot, and ran like one o'clock for the trap, cussing and swearing as I went.

Derived terms

• cuss out
• cussy
• mooncusser

Translations

to use cursing

• Bulgarian: проклинам (bg) (proklinam), ругая (bg) (rugaja)
• Czech: nadávat (cs) impf, klít (cs) impf
• Danish: bande (da)
• Dutch: vervloeken (nl)
• Finnish: kiroilla (fi)
• French: jurer (fr)
• German: fluchen (de)
• Greek: βλασφημώ (el) (vlasfimó), βλαστημώ (el) (vlastimó)
• Italian: bestemmiare (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: banne (no)

  Nynorsk: banna (nn)

• Polish: bluzgać impf, bluznąć pf
• Russian: руга́ться (ru) (rugátʹsja)
• Swedish: svära (sv)
• Turkish: küfretmek (tr)

Noun

cuss (plural cusses)

1. (chiefly US, colloquial) A curse.
2. (chiefly US, colloquial) A curse word.

Derived terms

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

 

Etymology 2

Clipping of customer.

Noun

cuss (plural cusses)

1. (dated, chiefly US, colloquial) A fellow, person.
   • 1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:

     Seemingly here was an intruder who was violating custom. Moreover, the partners had come to look upon this exceedingly rich district as their exclusive property. And so their indignation was extreme.
     "The low-down, ornery cuss!" said Dobbs. "The nerve of him, crowdin' in on us, just as if there wasn't lots of other places for him to go!"

   • 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter I, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, page 6:

     "Proud young cuss, aren't you?" "Apparently - I don't know." "Or is it you are just pig-headed?"

   • 1949, “Happy Talk”, in Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics), Richard Rogers (music), South Pacific:

     Talk about the boy saying to the girl,
     “Golly, baby, I’m a lucky cuss!”

   • 2012, Robin Oakley, Britain and Ireland's Top 100 Racehorses of All Time:

     Dawn Run's owner, Charmian Hill, who had insisted on trainer Paddy Mullins 'jocking off' his son Tony and putting up Jonjo O'Neill to ride her in the Gold Cup, was an awkward cuss too.

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