See Also: Prime cost or direct cost(finance)
cost(1)(dictionary)
All-in cost(finance)
COST(finance)
cost(3)(dictionary)
cost(4)(dictionary)
Net Cost(money)
cost(encyclopedia)
All-in cost(money)
Cost(money)

cost(2) (iou)



cost noun2. ME.

What must be given in order to acquire, produce, or effect something; the price (to be) paid for a thing. ME.
b. What a thing originally cost. L19.
In pl. Charges, expenses; obsolete exc. Law, the expenses of litigation, prosecution, or other legal transaction, esp. those allowed in favour of the winning party or against the losing party. ME.
Expenditure of time or labour; what is borne, lost, or suffered in accomplishing or gaining something. (Now chiefly in phrs. or with of.) ME.
Outlay, expenditure. LME-L18.
Addison No Art or Cost is omitted to make the Stay..agreeable.
What money etc. is expended on; a costly thing. rare. LME-L16.
Phrases: at all costs, at any cost whatever the cost may be. at cost at the initial cost; at cost price. at the cost of at the expense of losing (something). bill of costs: see BILL noun3. cost of living the financial outlay required for the basic necessities of life. count the cost consider the risks, disadvantages, or repercussions of an action. know to one's cost have learned by bitter experience. prime cost: see PRIME adjective. social cost: see SOCIAL adjective. to a person's cost with loss or disadvantage to him or her. unit cost: see UNIT noun1 & adjective. with costs: see WITH preposition.
Comb.: cost accountant: engaged in cost accounting; cost accounting the recording and review of all the costs incurred in a business, as an aid to management (current cost accounting: see CURRENT adjective); cost-benefit analysis, cost-benefit study: assessing the relation of the cost of an operation to the value of the resulting benefits; cost clerk: who records all the costs incurred in a business, as an aid to management; cost-effective adjective providing a satisfactory return for the outlay; cost-of-living index: measuring the change with time in the level of retail prices; cost-plus adjective designating or pertaining to a pricing system in which a fixed profit factor is added to the cost incurred; cost price: at which a merchant etc. buys; cost-push noun & adjective (caused by) increasing costs, esp. pay, rather than increasing demand as agents of inflation.
costless adjective without cost, free E16.
costlessness noun an absence of any expense M19.