law Costs is the money given to a person who wins a legal case to pay for the cost of taking the matter to a law court. To require a specified payment, expenditure, effort, or loss: It costs more to live in the city. cost; costing 1 : to have a price of : require payment of each ticket costs one dollar 2 : to cause one to pay, spend, or lose mistakes cost him his job Costs are often underestimated, resulting in cost overruns during execution. Cost-plus pricing is where the price equals cost plus a percentage of overhead or profit margin. Fixed and variable costs. Some costs—like the cost of rent or heavy machinery—don’t change based on how many bicycles are produced. These are called fixed costs. Other costs, like labor and raw materials, can increase or decrease depending on how much is produced. These are called variable costs. A cost can be manipulated by capitalizing expenses that should be charged immediately, delaying write-offs, using biased overhead allocation rates, shifting costs between periods, excluding necessary indirect costs, or classifying normal costs as unusual or nonrecurring. A new car costs thousands of dollars, while in some places penny candy still only costs a penny per piece. Cost also means cause a loss, as when a bad fumble costs your favorite football team the game, or your brother's cheating on a test costs him the respect of his favorite teacher.