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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

costful en · ADJ

Etymology

From Middle English costful, equivalent to cost + -ful. Perhaps influenced by Middle English costful (“fraught with hardship”), a different word.

Meanings

  1. (archaic) Expensive; sumptuous.
  2. Indicative of expenditure or loss; costly.
    • The fight against improved means, methods and materials in the construction industry, in shipping by rail or by sea, in the printing industry and most everywhere has been hugely costful to American consumers and involves a great waste of resources. 1965, Bertie Charles Forbes, Forbes, volume 95, page 78:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
most costful Degree=Sup lexicographic
more costful Degree=Cmp lexicographic

Deriveds

costfully