Meaning & use
cosign
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitivefinancelegal
To sign a loan or lease together with another person, promising to pay if that person does not.
Grammar: With an object: cosign the loan. Without one: my father agreed to cosign.
Patterns
- cosign a loan for someone
- cosign for someone
My aunt agreed to cosign the loan for my first car.
The landlord asked a parent to cosign the lease.
I would not cosign unless I trusted him completely.
verbtransitiveinformalslang
To publicly support or endorse someone's statement, decision or idea.
Grammar: Takes an object and is informal in this use: she cosigned his plan.
Patterns
- cosign something
- cosign on something
I will cosign that opinion about the movie.
The coach cosigned the player's decision to rest.
Several experts cosigned the proposal on social media.
Word forms
| third person singular | cosigns |
|---|---|
| past tense | cosigned |
| past participle | cosigned |
| -ing form | cosigning |
Common combinations
- cosign a loan
- He cosigned a loan for his daughter.
- cosign a lease
- Her mother cosigned the lease.
- cosign for someone
- Would you cosign for me?
- ask someone to cosign
- Students often ask a parent to cosign.
Synonyms and how they differ
- guarantee
- It is broader and can be done as a separate act; a cosigner signs the same contract.
- underwrite
- It suggests taking financial risk, often by a professional institution.
- endorse
- It means to support publicly, with no financial duty.
Word family
Commonly confused: cosign or cosine?
cosign vs cosine
Cosine is a math function, pronounced similarly, and has nothing to do with signing loans.
Practice
A bank asks a student to find someone to cosign her loan. What would the cosigner do?
Choose one answer.
A cosigner shares legal responsibility for repayment. The cosigner does not get the money, which is the tempting wrong option.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cosign”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.