first cousin

first cousin

Someone or something that bears a close relation or resemblance to another person or thing. Their newest model of car, though spiffed up, remains a first cousin to their last design. In terms of artistic vision, the young director is clearly a first cousin to the likes of Alfred Hitchcock.
See also: cousin, first
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

first cousin

A close relation or resemblance to someone or something, as in This new machine is a first cousin to the previous model. The figurative use of cousin, which literally means "the child of one's aunt or uncle," dates from the 1300s.
See also: cousin, first
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
See also:
  • a dead ringer for somebody
  • a dead ringer for someone
  • dead ringer
  • dead ringer for (someone)
  • dead ringer for someone
  • spit and image of
  • the spit and image of (one)
  • the spitting image
  • the spitting image of (one)
  • spitting image
References in periodicals archive
Among women having a blood relation with their husbands, those who were married to their first cousins from their father's side reported highest proportion of ever having been subjected to all marital control behaviours studied.
Association between parental marriages and risk of HIV-1 infection in offspring Type of Controls N (%) Cases OR 95% p-value marriages N (%) CI Unrelated 671 (67.2) 254 (76.2) 1.0 -- -- First Cousins 223 (22.3) 52 (15.6) 0.61 0.44- 0.005 0.86 Others 105 (10.5) 24 (7.2) 0.67 0.43- 0.090 1.06
The cousin marriage rates were lower for expats who were about to tie the knot and underwent the tests - 8.2 per cent of them married their first cousins, 2.6 per cent married their second cousins and 2.5 per cent married a distant cousin.
By no means is this a romance, but the casual attraction between the first cousins is a little strange.
"My parents are both first cousins. My aunt married a first cousin and had two children, both of whom died young.
While the risk of having a child with poor health in cousin marriage is very slight, it is still something that all first cousin couples should take into consideration before tying a knot.
First cousin marriage isn't a sure fire recipe for congenital defects.
First cousin couples are expected to produce a .5 to 1 per cent increase in the frequency of birth defects and genetic problems.
However, since these are subject to change, what is to prevent first cousin marriage from gaining popularity?
As with us all Dai had faults but, as his first cousin, I loved him and the world is a duller place without him.
When she found out it was his first cousin, the pain was even worse."
Charles Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgewood.
My first cousin once removed, who I refer to as my aunt, Peggy Tishman, was the first president of UJA.
The 66-year-old photographer and first cousin once-removed of the Queen was staying with friends outside London when he became unwell.
VAL Summit uses the similar underwriting categories available in its living benefit-focused sister policy, VAL Horizon, and also its first cousin, Adjustable Life (AL) Summit, a fixed life product with strong guarantees that was released last spring.