cosy
/ˈkəʊzi
/(US cozy)
adjective (cosier, cosiest; cozier, coziest)
1Giving a feeling of comfort, warmth, and relaxation: the flickering lamp gave the room a cosy lived-in air...
- You can spend the night in warm, cosy log cabins watching the northern lights dance across the sky.
- I reminisce for a fleeting moment about breezy Saturday nights, meaningful movies, black cozy couches and the comfort of a brawny shoulder to rest on.
- Thick quilts provide the inspiration for jackets and coats, conveying cozy warmth plus convincing lightness.
Synonyms
snug, comfortable, warm, restful, homelike, homey, homely, cheerful, welcoming, pleasant, agreeable;
safe, sheltered, secure, at ease, mellow;
North American down-home, homestyle
informal comfy, snug as a bug (in a rug), snuggly
1.1(Of a relationship or conversation) intimate and relaxed: a very cosy little chat...
- The colonialists and the communalists had a cozy relationship at a deeper level.
- Policy communities are cosy relationships between organized interests and officials.
- What do you make of the state of the cozy relationship?
Synonyms
intimate, relaxed, informal, friendly
1.2Not seeking or offering challenge or difficulty; complacent: a cosy assumption among audit firms that they would never go bust...
- For make no mistake, they are challenging not just our cosy ideas of what it means to be Scottish and support football, they are threatening the very world order of soccer itself.
- Blogging is said to have changed modern journalism by challenging the cosy media monopoly with its grass-roots approach to issues.
- That manifests itself in a cosy collectivism that seeks to minimise the importance of any problem.
1.3 informal, derogatory (Of a transaction or arrangement) beneficial to all those involved and possibly somewhat corrupt: a cosy deal...
- This cosy arrangement has been abruptly terminated, however, by new government regulations limiting the sort of work that amateurs can carry out.
- This was a cosy arrangement, but it is no longer viable.
- If this sounds like a pretty cozy arrangement, it is.
noun (plural cosies)
1A soft covering to keep a teapot, boiled egg, etc. hot: a photograph of Smith pouring tea from a pot with a knitted cosy mug cosies are simple to make...
- While your tea steeps, keep it hot with a teapot cosy.
- After a quarter of an hour, hot buttered toast on a covered hot water plate, with the Staffordshire cottage tea pot in its floral cosy, arrived.
- In the morning a servant brings a pot of tea in a cozy on a tray, with warm milk and hot water in the cup to warm it.
1.1A soft decorative cover for a particular object: a handmade phone cosy crocheted tissue box cosies...
- Who even knew tissue box cozies were a thing?
- Chan has got her own store where you can purchase crocheted corn-dog pen cozies and even crocheted bread-and-butter scarves!
- Whether she's in the office, at home or out to lunch, these chic cozies will keep her phone off the floor and out of danger from being stepped on.
1.2 (cozy) North American An insulating sleeve used to keep a canned or bottled drink cold: guests received beer cozies at the end of the evening...
- Get the kind of drink cozies that you put in the freezer.
- You open bottles, clink them against your friends' bottles, and dress them up in little cozies to keep them cold.
- The studios have designed these humorous and manly cozies that give your can of beer a beard.
2British A canopied corner seat for two.
verb (cosies, cosying, cosied) [with object] informal
1Make (someone) feel comfortable or complacent: she cosied him and made out she found him irresistible...
- She gave me a hug, and took me home, and cosied me up in her spare room.
- But it won't be enough: The Horned Frogs will be cozied up at home by the time January 3 rolls around.
- It made sense to see that they'd cozied themselves within a personal urban pine forest to watch paired kids parade past in colorful and spooky garb.
1.1 [no object] (cosy up to) Snuggle up to: he cosied up to the heater...
- But, be very careful who you cozy up to in the process.
- It is the temptation of the public intellectual to cozy up to that which he or she should be evaluating critically.
- Even if you're single, you'll want to cozy up to something cute.
1.2 [no object] (cosy up to) Ingratiate oneself with: he decided to resign rather than cosy up to hardliners in the party...
- He and his father have always shown a preference to cozying up to the establishment rather than actually helping people.
- ‘It is a world in which refuse collectors cosy up to barristers, split along moral lines rather than social ones’.
- What we've seen here plays right into public concerns about whether or not reporters are mostly focused on serving the public's need to know, or cozying up with sources.
Derivatives
cosily
/ adverb ...- They live cozily in Camden, Maine, where he works as a family doctor and she teaches school.
- This place seems so cozily familiar by comparison.
- They embarked on a life that was both romantically adventurous and cozily domestic.
cosiness
- It supplies coziness and luxury that can be expected at hotel lobbies.
- He witnessed ‘self-censorship because of the coziness between executives and senior national security figures.’
- Throughout its entirety there is a lacquered touch of sentimental coziness, sustained by the folksy Irish music played on a Gaelic harp as background for the opening credits and then recurrently.
Origin
Early 18th century (originally Scots): of unknown origin.
- Iron Crown
- Iron Curtain
- Iron Curtain country
- iron deficiency
- iron deficiency anaemia
- iron deficiency anemia
- iron-deficient
- irone
- ironer
- ironface
- iron fall
- iron filings
- iron fist
- iron-fisted
- ironfounder
- iron founding
- iron foundry
- iron-free
- iron furnace
- iron gang
- Iron Gate
- iron gear
- iron-grass
- iron grey
- iron-greyed