We introduce the notion of quasi-orthogonal cocycle. This is motivated in part by the maximal determinant problem for square $\{\pm 1\}$-matrices of size congruent to $2$ modulo $4$. Quasi-orthogonal cocycles are analogous to the orthogonal cocycles of algebraic design theory. Equivalences with new and known combinatorial objects afforded by this analogy, such as quasi-Hadamard groups, relative quasi-difference sets, and certain partially balanced incomplete block designs, are proved.