different between cozen vs overreach

English

Etymology 1

From coz(y) +? -en.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k??z?n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ko?z?n/

Verb

cozen (third-person singular simple present cozens, present participle cozening, simple past and past participle cozened)

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

Usage notes

• Usually used with up.

Etymology 2

Perhaps from obsolete Italian cozzonare (“to cheat”), from cozzone (“middleman, broker”), from Latin cocio (“dealer”).

Alternative forms

• coosen, coosin (both obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?z?n/
• Rhymes: -?z?n
• Homophone: cousin

Verb

cozen (third-person singular simple present cozens, present participle cozening, simple past and past participle cozened)

1. (archaic) To cheat; to defraud; to deceive, usually by small arts, or in a pitiful way. [from late 16th c.]
   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 54-56,^[1]

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

   • 1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Act III, Scene 2,

     What devil was't / That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind?

   • a. 1667, Jeremy Taylor, 1851, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, Volume 1, page 895,

     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; […] .

   • 1866, Spoils, By a Receiver, Charles Chauncey Burr (editor), The Old Guard: A Monthly Journal Devoted to the Principles of 1776 and 1787, Volume 4, page 497,

     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.

   • 1914, Rafael Sabatini, The Gates of Doom, 2001, page 217,

     But that you should have been cozened with me, that my cozening should in part have been a natural sequel to your own, rather than an independent error of mine, is a helpful reflection to me in this dark hour.

   Synonym: beguile

Usage notes

Modern usage is generally to effect a dated style.

Related terms

• cozener
• cozenage

Translations

References

• Webster's New School and Office Dictionary, copyright 1962
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “cozen”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

English

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English overrechen (“to rise above; to extend beyond or over; to encroach; to catch, overtake; to reach; to obtain wrongfully (?); to take up (a book) to revise it”) [and other forms], equivalent to over- +? reach; the noun is derived from the verb or from the phrase to reach over.

Pronunciation

• Verb:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???v???i?t??/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?o?v?(?)??it??/
  • Rhymes: -i?t?
• Noun:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???v?(?)?i?t??/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?o?v?(?)??it??/
• Hyphenation: over?reach

Verb

overreach (third-person singular simple present overreaches, present participle overreaching, simple past and past participle overreached)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To reach above or beyond, especially to an excessive degree. [from 14th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:transcend

   1. (transitive, property law) To defeat or override a person's interest in property; (Britain, specifically) of a holder of the legal title of real property: by mortgaging or selling the legal title to a third party, to cause another person's equitable right in the property to be dissolved and to be replaced by an equitable right in the money received from the third party.
2. (transitive, intransitive, figuratively) To do something beyond an appropriate limit, or beyond one's ability.
3. (transitive, intransitive, reflexive, equestrianism) Of a horse: to strike the heel of a forefoot with the toe of a hindfoot. [from 16th c.]
4. (transitive, intransitive, now rare) To deceive, to swindle.

   Synonyms: cheat, defraud; see also Thesaurus:deceive

   • 1775, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The Duenna, II.4:

     Don't you see that, by this step, I overreach him? I shall be entitled to the girl's fortune without settling a ducat on her!
5. (intransitive, nautical) To sail on one tack farther than is necessary.
6. (transitive, archaic) To get the better of, especially by artifice or cunning; to outwit. [from 16th c.]

Conjugation

Derived terms

• overreacher
• overreaching (noun)
• overreachingly

Translations

Noun

overreach (countable and uncountable, plural overreaches)

1. (also figuratively) An act of extending or reaching over, especially if too far or much; overextension.
2. (equestrianism) Of a horse: an act of striking the heel of a forefoot with the toe of a hindfoot; an injury caused by this action.

Derived terms

• overreach boot

Translations

References

Further reading

• overreaching (law) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia