Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1300-1400
Language: Old French
Origin: coster, from Latin constare 'to stand firm, cost'; CONSTANT1

cost

2 verb
     
Related topics: Finance
cost2 S1 W2
1 past tense and past participle cost [linking verb] to have a particular price:
A full day's activities will cost you £45.
His proposals could cost the taxpayer around £8 billion a year.
How much would it cost us to replace?
not cost somebody a penny (=cost nothing)
It won't cost you a penny for the first six months.
cost a (small) fortune/a pretty penny (=have a very high price)
It's costing us a fortune in phone bills.
cost a bomb/a packet British English (=have a very high price)
What a fantastic dress. It must have cost a bomb!
Lighting can change the look of a room and needn't cost the earth (=have a price which is too high).
Getting that insured is going to cost you an arm and a leg (=have a very high price).
2

cost somebody their job/life/marriage etc

when something makes you lose your job etc:
Joe's brave action cost him his life.
His strong stand on the issue could have cost him his job.
Bad management could be costing this club a chance at the title.
3

cost somebody dear/dearly

to make someone suffer a lot or to lose something important:
A couple of missed chances in the first half cost them dear.
The scandal has cost Nicholson dearly.
4 past tense and past participle costed [transitive usually passive]BF to calculate the total price of something or decide how much the price of something should be:
We'll get the plan costed before presenting it to the board.
5

it will cost you

spoken used to say that something will be expensive:
Tickets are available, but they'll cost you!
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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