[f. COUSIN sb. + -HOOD.]

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  1.  Cousins or kinsfolk collectively; an association of cousins or relatives. (Cf. BROTHERHOOD 5.)

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a. 1797.  H. Walpole, Mem. Geo. II. (1847), I. v. 134. The only one of the cousinhood who could not be turned out.

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1838.  Macaulay, Ess., Sir W. Temple, ¶ 13. There were times when the cousinhood, as it was once nicknamed, would of itself have furnished … the materials … for … an efficient Cabinet.

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1886.  L’pool Daily Post, 9 Feb., 4/6. Royal houses … are fast becoming a kind of Coburg cousinhood.

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  2.  The relation of being a cousin or cousins.

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1833.  Lamb, Elia (1860), 365. I feel a sort of cousinhood or uncleship, for the season.

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1865.  Lightfoot, Galatians (1880), 266. The cousinhood of these persons is represented as a cousinhood on the mother’s side.

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