cozen

verb

1. (intransitive)To become cozy; (by extension) to become acquainted, comfortable, or familiar with.

   “"As I see it, Master Fraser, a 'bairn' ought to be verra concerned when a mon thrice her age cozens up to her."”

   “A wasp nest cozened up in the corner of the far ceiling.”

   “I heard someone at the swap meet say they were going to cozen up to someone, and someone else told me my sales pitch was a filibuster.”

2. (archaic)To cheat; to defraud; to deceive, usually by small arts, or in a pitiful way.

   “[…] good Vulcan, for Cupids sake that hath cousned us all: befriend us as thou maiest […]”

   “What diuell was't / That thus hath couſend you at hoodman-blinde?”

   “[I]t was resolved that he was to do his duty; that is, to redeem his vow; that is, to pay a debt cozened from him by a sharper […]”

   “It is certain that children may be cozened into goodness, and sick men to health, and passengers in a storm into safety; and the reason of these is, — because not only the end is fair, and charitable, and just, but the means are such which do no injury to the persons which are to receive benefit;[…].”

   “The man, too, who has been matrimonially cozened, "would all the world might be cozened," for he has been cozened, and beaten too; but with him the cudgel is "hallowed;" he would "hang it o'er the altar;" perhaps for the reason given by the "Merry Wives of Windsor," because "it hath done meritorious service;" and no sooner is he, by a seemingly merciful disposition of Providence, released from the cudgeler, but he is in haste to be cozened and beaten again.”

name

1. A surname.