The Collaborative International Dictionary
Cozen \Coz"en\ (k?z"'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cozened (-'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Cozening (-'n-?ng). ] [From cousin, hence, literally, to deceive through pretext of relationship, F. cousiner.] To cheat; to defraud; to beguile; to deceive, usually by small arts, or in a pitiful way.
He had cozened the world by fine phrases.
--Macaulay.
Children may be cozened into a knowledge of the
letters.
--Locke.
Goring loved no man so well but that he would cozen
him,
and expose him to public mirth for having been cozened.
--Clarendon.
Wiktionary
n. fraud; deception; the acts of one who cozens vb. (present participle of cozen English)
Usage examples of "cozening".
Methinks 'tis fine talk from a set of cozening flyboys who have mass orgies.
Now what cozening fiend it was, gentlemen, that possessed Radney to meddle with such a man in that corporeally exasperated state, I know not.
A real expert in cozening, a master of guile, was wanted to exploit the opportunity to its limit.